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I resigned from Anthropic today

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Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#151

“ No other human activity poses this level of danger.” I really, really disagree with that statement. I don’t think ai models come close to nuclear weapons or to run-of-the-mill, everyday carbon emissions in terms of danger to humanity. What’s the most dangerous thing that’s happened with an LLM so far? (This question is serious - maybe I don’t know the right examples.) Example 1: I’m aware of a small number of peopl…

> I’m not interested in wild theories about AI driven labor market disruptions leading to widespread starvation

Changes in political and economic power balance leading to unrest, conflict, death and deprivation is not a wild theory. It is literally the story of our entire species. If you discount all such concerns, you are simply being willfully ignorant of past precedents.

In fact, I challenge you to describe any non-AI civilization-level danger which is not intimately tied to political and economic relationships between and within societies.

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#152

The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible - but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger. A common response is “if they truly believe this, why are they still building it?”…

> At OpenAI, many have not deeply internalized the civilizational stakes. At Anthropic, the stakes are well-understood, but they are locked in a race to get there first - they believe no one else will act responsibly, so they must do it themselves, despite the risk. OpenAI are mercenaries, Anthropic is a cult. I know which I prefer.

sounds just like GDI and Nod

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#153

Unlike most other commenters, I applaud him for acting on his principles. If you sincerely believe that, of course you should act. You might not succeed, but your voice might be the one that tips the scales and starts a broader movement. This doesn't mean I agree with him. The fears of doomsday caused by rapid takeoff have been with us since day 1 and the mechanism is always basically "AI invents magic that sets it f…

To borrow on the 1990s Slashdot meme:

1. Invent transformer architecture.

2. Scale it up.

3. ???

4. Machines become sentient and kill us all.

OpenAI and Anthropic pinky promise that they have figured out #3 and they're not BSing just to get more funding, no.

But because we live in a culture of fear, everyone eats it up no questions asked.

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#154

The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible - but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger. A common response is “if they truly believe this, why are they still building it?”…

I read this. I still think it's complete bullshit. The person posting this may very well believe in all this crap, I don't dispute that. People believe in all sorts of shit.

What's almost certainly true is the amount of insanity he encountered at Anthropic.

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#155
post #120

“ No other human activity poses this level of danger.” I really, really disagree with that statement. I don’t think ai models come close to nuclear weapons or to run-of-the-mill, everyday carbon emissions in terms of danger to humanity. What’s the most dangerous thing that’s happened with an LLM so far? (This question is serious - maybe I don’t know the right examples.) Example 1: I’m aware of a small number of peopl…

Came here to also respond to that specific thing. Unless ai figures out how to make an airborne super virus from grocery store ingredients and hardware store equipment, the greatest danger is probably in a synchronized megahack of banking, logistics, and utility infrastructure.

oh so “all” it can do is bring down all banking and critical infrastructure services, no big deal really

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#156
post #99

The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible - but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger. A common response is “if they truly believe this, why are they still building it?”…

This is the "Pilot testimony of UFO sighting" levels of naive. What's more likely? Anthropic is doing some deeply unethical marketing in the lead up to their multi-trillion dollar IPO? Or they're inventing a machine god? There's ample evidence of the former because that's their entire business model, but no evidence whatsoever to support the latter claims. If you want an extreme claim to be taken seriously, provide c…

So what is your credence that they will build a machine god in the next twenty years?

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#157
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read this. I still think it's complete bullshit. The person posting this may very well believe in all this crap, I don't dispute that. People believe in all sorts of shit.

So, let’s quantify things: what’s the chance they’re right? And what’s the cost of that chance happens?

This is the way.

And, this is just for us girls, notice that Anthropic just believing that they are making a machine god is sufficient for their public announcements to not jUsT bE mArKeTiNg.

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having witnessed so many people treat LLMs as a something divine, I can only assume the reasonable people at openai and anthropic were all pushed out long ago, and the majority that remain believe the crazy hype despite Tesla-self-driving-level predictions from these companies that don't come true. I'm not worried about what they think. I'm worried that too much infrastructure- water, power, defense systems, etc- rem…

> I can only assume the reasonable people at openai and anthropic were all pushed out long ago Typical uninformed take on the side of "doomers are crazy". Both CEO's of OpenAI, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, and many in their leadership, believe AGI has a very real probability of causing humanity's extinction. Both companies were founded upon this belief, it is at the core of the company. Only later were mercenaries hi…

If they truly, truly believed that, would they be speeding towards building it? If yes, that would make them truly insane, right? Not as in a quaint "off their rocker" but more "non compos mentis".

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#159
I doubt this is a real person. Screams of propaganda. Sama saying GPT-2 is too dangerous to release…all over again.

He joins Twitter for first time in 2026 with a nonsensical username unrelated to his real name, and follows 14 people but is somehow embedded in tech enough to work at Anthropic. I haven’t used twitter since 2014 and even I follow more people.

His morals tell him to walk away from tens of millions in unvested stock due to moral concerns with absolutely no real tangible examples. No reprisals. Fear mongering to juice the stock.

Nice try Dario.

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having witnessed so many people treat LLMs as a something divine, I can only assume the reasonable people at openai and anthropic were all pushed out long ago, and the majority that remain believe the crazy hype despite Tesla-self-driving-level predictions from these companies that don't come true. I'm not worried about what they think. I'm worried that too much infrastructure- water, power, defense systems, etc- rem…

> I can only assume the reasonable people at openai and anthropic were all pushed out long ago Typical uninformed take on the side of "doomers are crazy". Both CEO's of OpenAI, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, and many in their leadership, believe AGI has a very real probability of causing humanity's extinction. Both companies were founded upon this belief, it is at the core of the company. Only later were mercenaries hi…

Why is the take uninformed? You didn't address anything about the part you quoted, wherein reasonable people were allegedly pushed out long ago.
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