Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wants AI models regulated like airplanes

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has once again warned about the potential threats posed by advanced AI models and has called for them to be regulated in a similar manner to airplanes. In a blog on his personal website, Amodei also said that governments should have the authority to block the deployment of AI models if they “present unacceptable risks”.

Amodei wrote that it is now time to move towards “serious and binding regulation of AI” in order to assess the emerging risks posed by the technology.

“I believe the best analogy, at least at the current stage of the exponential, is to cars, airplanes, or drugs, powerful technologies essential to the modern economy, but capable of killing large numbers of people if designed or operated poorly,” Amodei wrote.

“Frontier AI models, like airplanes, should be required to go through technical testing and auditing, and their release should be blocked or reversed as a threat to public safety if they do not meet high standards of safety,” he added.

Amodei also noted that there could be a time in the future when the “most powerful AI systems look less like airplanes or automobiles and more like weaponisable nuclear materials”.

Government should have power to block AI models:

Amodei noted that advanced AI models should undergo mandatory testing by a “qualified third party” for their level of risk in certain areas such as cybersecurity, biological weapons, loss of control of AI systems, and automated R&D.

He then added that the government should have the power to “block or deter deployment” of models that present unacceptable risks.

“This power must be scoped to the above four specific risks and there must be protective measures against political favouritism or arbitrary decisions,” he added.

Anthropic pledges to invest $200 billion on AI’s impact on jobs:

Anthropic also announced on Wednesday that it will invest $200 billion to research the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and the economy.

In his latest blog, Amodei also noted that there is a possibility that AI causes “significant enduring job loss”, which could be an “intrinsic property of the technology”.

“We risk ending up in a world where the economic tradeoff dial is stuck on the hypergrowth, hyper-inequality setting, and is potentially very hard to unstick from that setting,” he added.

The Anthropic CEO also noted that governments should provide economic support to people who are financially affected by AI. He also suggested implementing mechanisms such as universal basic income by taxing companies or raising capital gains taxes.

Amodei added that he is not talking about job displacement due to AI because he is trying to be a “prophet of doom”, but because he wants both the private sector and policymakers to have a chance to adapt and respond to the new technology.