They're profiting off your panic: How AI fear became a business model
In early September, a 27-year-old researcher quit Anthropic and posted a seven-part warning on X. The big AI labs, he wrote, were “racing straight to self improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” The thread drew more than 100 million views in about a day. Within the week, Anthropic’s chief executive called for slowing the pace of AI progress, and the heads of OpenAI and xAI voiced support. On Sept. 14, the main index of chip stocks fell 5.9% in a single session.
TL;DR
- A researcher's warning about AI labs racing to superintelligence went viral, leading to calls for slowing progress and a dip in chip stocks.
- Fearful headlines attract more clicks than positive ones, incentivizing alarmist predictions about AI's dangers.
- Speaking fees, podcast appearances, and follower counts increase with perceived danger, creating a profitable industry around AI fear.
- AI companies also use extinction talk to signal the importance of their work to investors and to lobby for favorable regulations.
- Significant lobbying and political spending are funded by AI companies and their supporters, using fear of regulation as a fundraising tool.
- Real AI-related issues like job layoffs and engineers losing skills are often ignored because they are less sensational than apocalyptic scenarios.
- The public is more concerned than excited about AI, with worry often being manufactured and sold rather than solely based on fact.
- The author suggests questioning what each loud voice gains from promoting their AI predictions and judging claims by evidence, not volume.