Anthropic CEO Envisions AI-Driven Utopia, Seeks Billions in Funding

Anthropic's CEO thinks AI can alleviate poverty and cure depression

Anthropic AI is ready to solve all the world's problems -- if the company can raise billions of dollars. CEO Dario Amodei wrote a sprawling blog post published on Friday laying out how he thinks his AI company can cure depression, end poverty, and solve many of society's ills. It comes as Anthropic is reportedly trying to raise billions more in investments. Amodei believes AI has transformational power that can condense innovations that previously took a hundred years into just five or ten. He believes that AI can eradicate disease, lift billions of people out of poverty, and usher in a "renaissance of liberal democracy and human rights," that is "if everything goes right." Our world, Amodei wrote, will be much better than the world today thanks to AI. "I don't know if this world is realistic, and even if it is, it will not be achieved without a huge amount of effort and struggle by many brave and dedicated people," he wrote. "Everyone (including AI companies!) will need to do their part both to prevent risks and to fully realize the benefits." Amodei, who left OpenAI and went on to found Anthropic with his sister Daniela, says he is often thinking and discussing AI's risks but made clear he is not a "doomer" about the technology. "I think that most people are underestimating just how radical the upside of AI could be, just as I think most people are underestimating how bad the risks could be," he said in his post. The company, which employs about 500 people, has already received billions in investments from Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOGL). The Information reported that Anthropic believes after this next round of funding, it will be worth between $30 and $40 billion

Anthropic's CEO thinks AI will lead to a utopia -- he just needs $7 billion first

If you want to raise ungodly amounts of money, you better have some godly reasons. That's what Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei laid out for us on Friday in more than 14,000 words: otherworldly ways in which artificial general intelligence (AGI, though he prefers to call it "powerful AI") will change our lives. In the blog, titled "Machines of Loving Grace," he envisions a future where AI could compress 100 years of medical progress into a decade, cure mental illnesses like PTSD and depression, upload your mind to the cloud, and alleviate poverty. At the same time, it's reported that Anthropic is hoping to raise up to $7 billion (beating OpenAI's recent historic funding round) at a $40 billion valuation.