Anthropics ridiculous earnest belief AI may suffer makes it all the more dangerous: Watch for whats coming says expert

Anthropic’s bosses aren’t faking it when they say their chatbot may be able to suffer — and that’s terrifying, according to a leading computer scientist.A New York Times piece last week reported that Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah has been meeting with various religious scholars and leaders for months, telling them that the company’s chatbot, Claude, may be conscious and able to suffer.That should worry people more than any stunt would, because these true believers are about to get billions of dollars to push their cause, Pedro Domingos, a professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Washington and a longtime critic of the company, told The Post.“I think it’s sincere, unfortunately,” Domingos said.“The problem with them is that they’re dead earnest.

If only they weren’t.I’m more worried about their earnestness than if they were just doing this as a performance.“This stuff actually, even though that wasn’t the original intention, is amazing as a PR stunt,” Domingos continued.

“Because what is the underlying message? … The technology we’re creating is so powerful, maybe it’s even sentient and has consciousness.”That pitch could not be better timed.The company is set to go public next month at a valuation of $2 trillion — potentially the largest IPO ever.“If Anthropic really is a company that is going to produce the next generation of humans, they’re not worth a trillion dollars, they’re worth a quadrillion or who knows how much,” Domingos said.A 261-pages leaked prospects, obtained by Reuters, has 80 pages on risks, including “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity,” and shows an operating loss of $8.06 billion.For investors, Domingos pointed out, the red flag is in the prospectus itself.“If your number one risk is that your company’s product is going to drive humanity extinct, hello, there shouldn’t even be an IPO.

You should be shut down!” said Domingos, who said he holds no stak...