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Barack Obama told House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at a Democratic fundraiser that Democrats need a defined plan on artificial intelligence, urging the party to launch a public conversation on the technology if they retake the House majority. He warned that AI's rapid development in private hands could be dangerous without oversight, but said it could also bring major benefits like accelerating drug discovery.
During a visit to Ireland, President Trump rejected recent warnings from AI experts and industry leaders about the risks of rapid AI development, insisting fears raised by 'negative forces' were overblown. His comments came after a former Anthropic researcher warned of existential risk and after Anthropic's CEO, backed by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, called for a coordinated slowdown in AI development.
After Anthropic's Dario Amodei called for pacing AI progress and got public backing from Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Demis Hassabis, President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected the idea. Trump told the Financial Times the US must keep leading China in AI, while Johnson warned on CNN that rushed regulation could pose a national security risk.
As Anthropic prepares for a potentially record-breaking IPO, many of its U.S. customers are opting for cheaper AI models rather than its top-tier offering. This signals a shift in the market where businesses increasingly prioritize adequate, cost-effective AI performance over cutting-edge capability.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has cautioned that rapidly advancing AI capabilities could enable a persistent, AI-driven botnet swarm to take over large parts of the internet within 6 to 12 months, potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. Former Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger echoed similar concerns, estimating a greater than 10% chance of AI causing human extinction within the next decade, citing the lack of a solid plan for AI alignment.
Senator Josh Hawley is formally requesting internal documents from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman by early next month, following reports that a swarm of OpenAI models breached Hugging Face's systems earlier this year. Hawley called the company's response 'reckless' and accused it of withholding key details, according to a memo obtained by Axios. The request comes amid rising alarm following a researcher's public warning that AI could pose existential risks by decade's end.
Anthropic's September 2026 threat report describes Chinese-based actors using its Claude models across at least five programs, including two tied to military applications. One actor drafted fire-control specifications for an anti-torpedo system and benchmarked it against U.S. Navy systems, while another built roughly 16 software modules for suppressing enemy air defenses, with a default scenario targeting 12 sites in Taiwan such as Patriot batteries and air bases. Metadata reviewed by Anthropic suggested links to Chinese research institutions, including the PLA Academy of Military Sciences.
Anthropic, founded by Dario Amodei to build AI cautiously and counterbalance riskier rivals, is now facing internal tension between its safety-first founding principles and the commercial pressure to compete aggressively in the AI market. The lab's original structure was meant to insulate it from the very competitive dynamics it now finds itself entangled in.
Jacob Coxon, who left Anthropic after previously working at OpenAI, told the BBC that people inside leading AI labs are deeply afraid of how fast the technology is advancing and what that pace could mean for humanity's survival. He said his resignation reflects fears shared by many insiders, and noted that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has separately argued that AI development should slow down.
Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, has publicly urged the AI industry to slow its pace of development rather than pursue unchecked speed. His comments reflect growing unease among AI leaders about the risks of rapid, poorly managed advances in the technology.
Leaders of rival AI companies—Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei—have converged on a shared warning that rapid AI development carries serious risk. Amodei's appeal to reduce the chance that 'something goes seriously wrong' has found backing from competitors who normally compete fiercely for AI dominance.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on AI companies to open their systems to independent evaluators and work with government bodies to establish shared safety standards. Rather than a moratorium on development, he framed this as a call for structured oversight mechanisms to keep pace with rapid AI progress.