Carmody Grey, the philosopher who said no to Anthropic: ‘We are becoming lonelier and less intelligent’
This British academic received the call many would dream of to collaborate with a major AI company. To the surprise of most of her colleagues, she said she was not interested in their offer
Carmody Grey, a 43-year-old professor at Radboud University in the Netherlands, declined an invitation from Anthropic, the company behind the chatbot Claude, to participate in a "research partnership with wisdom traditions" aimed at informing the moral formation of AI systems. Her unexpected decision surprised her colleagues, and she elaborated on her stance in an essay for the Financial Times.
Grey argues that the global advancement of AI poses significant problems, including addiction, dehumanization, new forms of violence and exploitation, power concentration, blurring of responsibility, environmental degradation, cultural and linguistic expropriation, and potentially making humanity lonelier and less intelligent. She emphasizes the importance of changing the questions we ask when discussing AI, urging a focus on its effects on individuals and the planet rather than the technology itself.
Grey questions the legitimacy of Anthropic's proposal to collaborate with "wisdom traditions," expressing discomfort with the way the invitation was framed. She also discusses her concerns about the commercial interests of AI companies in using philosophy to sell their products and the need for transparency, accountability, and trustworthy engagement between the academy and the wider world.
Written by urgent.news from El Pais English's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
