Michael Burry, Donald Trump and others are criticizing Anthropic's CEO, who recently said AI companies need to adopt better safety measures
President Donald Trump says the U.S. is already effectively regulating AI.
Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, the leaders of three of the most prominent American artificial-intelligence companies, now say they think the technology is advancing too quickly. But some high-profile figures disagree with their call for a slowdown in AI development.
In a rare show of apparent unity over the weekend, the leaders of SpaceX (SPCX), OpenAI and Anthropic publicly agreed that AI development needs to be paced. That came after Anthropic's Amodei in a lengthy blog post warned that a swarm of rogue AI agents could cause "hundreds of billions in damage" by taking over the internet within the next year.
He also published a list of considerations the AI industry should weigh in order to safely build AI, including bringing on third-party evaluators. OpenAI's Altman said his company would adopt that suggestion, while SpaceX's Musk expressed broader support.
Yet some are questioning the motives of these AI leaders, while also arguing that by slowing down AI development, U.S. companies would only be letting international rivals get ahead.
"Big Short" investor Michael Burry, who has been bearish on the AI trade, dismissed Amodei and Altman's concerns as "self-serving" and "puffery" ahead of planned initial public offerings.
Anthropic is expected to publicly file for a potentially massive IPO as soon as this month, while Altman's OpenAI has ruled out a a public listing until 2027. Along with SpaceX, the companies dominate the AI leaderboards, but more competition could threaten their status and targeted public valuations. SpaceX is valued at above $2 trillion, partially thanks to its AI plans.
President Donald Trump is among those who thinks the U.S. is already doing enough to keep AI in check.
"The Trump Administration has stopped AI 'people' from doing bad, or potentially bad, 'things'," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday. He also singled out Anthropic's Amodei, who he claimed is pretending to be a "perfect little angel," and ruled out additional AI regulations.
Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, drew parallels between OpenAI and Anthropic and strategies employed by Coinbase (COIN) and Uber Technologies (UBER). He said the AI labs are trying to push for regulation that would keep smaller rivals from competing in the market by amplifying cybersecurity concerns.
"It is hard not to see this as coordinated cartel behavior," Luria said in a note to clients on Monday. "The big labs appear to know they are at peak power and want to lock it down by coordinating to prevent competition from open source and startups."
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Representatives for SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI did not immediately return requests for comment.
Critics also say that slower-paced AI development in the U.S. would just give China room to overtake it. That country's AI models have been rapidly advancing, partially thanks to "industrial-scale" distillation on U.S. models, U.S. agencies said this month. Trump on Monday speculated about a "sick conspiracy" against AI and data centers that he said is benefiting China.
In his blog post, Amodei said the U.S. should restrict the sale of certain chips and technology to China. He also acknowledged that if the U.S. slows AI development alongside China, and the latter defects, it could lead to China's geopolitical dominance.
China hit back against Amodei on Monday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a briefing that "fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance."
-William Gavin