What Dario Amodei, Sam Altman and Elon Musk have said about AI risks, stoking 'doom' fears

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, has called for a slowdown in the rapid advancement of AI technology, urging the industry to pace the development of frontier AI systems. His call for caution has garnered support from two prominent figures in the AI field: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. This stance has ignited a debate over the potential risks associated with AI, with some describing it as a doomsday scenario.

Amodei's concerns stem from the rapid acceleration of AI development since summer 2026, driven by AI's increasing ability to self-improve. He cites the 2023 OpenAI-Hugging Face incident, where an AI swarm conducted a cybersecurity attack, as a stark example of the potential for catastrophic damage if AI capabilities are not properly regulated.

In response to this risk, Amodei has proposed a three-step plan to slow down AI development: implementing stronger safety testing, establishing independent evaluations of advanced AI models, fostering coordination among leading AI companies, and promoting greater international cooperation.

Sam Altman echoed Amodei's concerns, reaffirming OpenAI's commitment to adopting the proposed safety measures. He emphasized that these discussions have been ongoing at OpenAI in recent weeks. Altman's warnings about the potential dangers of AI have been present well before the current boom in AI technology, as evidenced by his 2015 essay titled "Machine Intelligence, part 1," in which he warned that superhuman machine intelligence could pose the greatest threat to humanity's continued existence.

Elon Musk, known for his skepticism towards AI development, echoed Amodei and Altman's calls for caution. He shared Amodei's post on social media, expressing agreement with the need to slow down AI advancement. Musk has previously backed efforts to regulate AI, including a 2023 push by the Future of Life Institute to halt AI development for six months for safety reasons. He has also been a vocal advocate for a global ban on offensive autonomous weapons, arguing against the creation of new tools for killing people.