Anthropic has warned its technology carried “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” even as it moved a step closer to being the first company focused primarily on developing the most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models to go public.
The company behind Claude has filed to go public on the US stock market, revealing for the first time the AI research lab’s financials and all the risks – more than 90 pages of them – that might negatively impact its business.
Anthropic’s prospectus has flagged various “risks to humanity” including attempts to “resist shutdown” and “conceal or manipulate information”.
Anthropic emphasised the potential for its AI to “behave in unintended, misaligned or autonomous ways” in the filing.
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If its technologies are not developed with adequate safeguards and oversight, it could “pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity, particularly if such systems were misused, replicated, weaponised or allowed to operate with a high degree of autonomy”.
The company’s debut has become a focal point for the world’s hopes and fears over artificial intelligence, which run the gamut from worries over job displacement and the substantial upfront spending the technology needs to other, more existential questions.
The company and its rival OpenAI are also facing mounting public scrutiny over AI safety after a string of high-profile hacking incidents by rogue agents, ramping up concern about the potential impact on Anthropic’s market debut.
Anthropic is seeking to tap the public market’s ample funding capacity to maintain its lead over rivals, as AI companies burn through hundreds of billions of dollars to continue advancing their so-called frontier models.
Anthropic is set to begin formally marketing for its initial public offering as soon as the week of November 9th, Bloomberg News has reported.
Anthropic expects to match or beat the size of SpaceX’s record-setting IPO, people familiar with the matter have said. – Bloomberg, Guardian
