Sam Bankman-Frieds surprising links to the ecosystem manipulating how you view AI

Silicon Valley billionaires bankrolling the Artificial Intelligence boom are also manipulating its perception — sponsoring research and testing labs, ambassadors and the journalists reporting on it.The most impactful operation is by those involved with the Effective Altruism (EA) movement, who have created an entire ecosystem which has propelled Anthropic from startup in 2021 to the forefront of AI and a $965 billion valuation today.Backers such as Dustin Moskovitz and now-imprisoned Sam Bankman-Fried poured money not just into the AI company, but also labs testing AI safety and reporting on the industry.Critics say the overlapping money has built an echo chamber, amplifying Anthropic and its CEO Dario Amodei’s doomerist message.But some say that message is likely tactical.“I think Dario seems to be using anxiety about safety as a weapon to control the pace of business,” Nathan Zhao, founding partner of tech investment firm SevenUp Capital, told The Post.“In Anthropic’s early days, there was a strong cult-like culture.

It started with a shared belief in putting safety first, but that could easily turn into employees having unquestioning faith in everything Dario said,” claimed Zhao, who’s spoken with several Anthropic employees.Industry insiders claimed Amodei’s calls for government regulation of AI this week are self-serving, as smaller companies would likely not have the funds to comply, upsetting many.“What is Anthropic actually trying to achieve? Nobody knows.But this attitude is really irritating — they’re always claiming the moral high ground and criticizing everyone else,” said Richard Chang, an AI engineer who asked to withhold his employer’s details.“[Until recently] people generally had a very positive impression of Anthropic.

But people in the industry have started reacting very negatively to the various positions they’ve taken.”The underlying message is Anthropic is the only company to be trusted and their way forward ...