What Shaped Anthropic CEO Dario Amodeis Thinking on A.I.

One night in 2007, Dario Amodei regaled a friend who was visiting him at Princeton University with his thoughts on “The Singularity Is Near,” a 2005 treatise by the computer scientist Ray Kurzweil.Dr.Amodei had just read the book, in which Mr.

Kurzweil predicted that artificial intelligence would eventually surpass the human brain in a moment known as the Singularity.As he twisted his hair with his fingers, Dr.

Amodei told his friend, Colin Heckman, that the milestone could happen within their lifetimes.“He became obsessed,” said Mr.Heckman, who went to high school with Dr.

Amodei in San Francisco.“He said A.I.

had to be built right, or we’re going to be done.”Dr.Amodei, then 24 and a doctoral student in physics, was in a period of soaking up information.

He had become absorbed in the obscure blogs “Accelerating Future” and “Overcoming Bias,” where writers discussed A.I.’s potential to wipe out humanity.And he had delved into the online forums of GiveWell, an organization that aimed to maximize the effectiveness of charitable giving, where intellectuals debated how to make the most money for philanthropy.These books, blogs and online communities have influenced Dr.

Amodei to this day, according to interviews with more than two dozen of his classmates, friends, teachers and colleagues.They help explain the ideas that drive the 43-year-old chief executive of Anthropic, a company that is set to conduct one of the world’s largest public listings this month, and offer an understanding of how the man at the forefront of the A.I.

revolution actually thinks about A.I.At the heart of Dr.Amodei’s worldview, his friends and colleagues said, are two interwoven philosophies that share an uncompromising belief that mathematical reasoning can change the future of humanity.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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