Anthropic warns of 'catastrophic risk' to humankind ahead of blockbuster share listing

Anthropic has warned artificial intelligence could pose "catastrophic or existential risks to humanity" as it unveiled details of its planned blockbuster stock market listing in the US.

The company behind AI chatbot Claude revealed losses of more than $80.7bn (£60.5bn) in the first half of the year, but said it had $112.4bn in cash or equivalents, and generated revenues of $16.3bn over the same period.

The number of shares to be released, their price range, and a date for the listing have not been disclosed.

Anthropic's valuation when it goes public has been expected to exceed that of SpaceX, which this summer was the biggest-ever stock listing at an initial valuation of about $1.8 trillion.

In a filing ahead of its listing, Anthropic said concerns had been raised by policymakers, regulators and researchers as well as by people within its organisation that AI systems posed a significant risk to humanity.

It said advanced AI systems "could, if not developed, deployed, and operated with appropriate safeguards, oversight, and security measures, 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".

Anthropic will be the first true AI company to go public, making it a test case for the future of the technology.

It said it will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol ANT.

Anthropic, which was founded just five years ago by chief executive Dario Amodei, his sister Daniela Amodei and five other co-founders, announced its intention to go public in June.

Its most significant rival, OpenAI, quickly followed suit, saying it, too, intended to go public. That listing is now expected to occur early next year, according to a person familiar with OpenAI's plans.

After the companies had decided on such plans, a wave of cyber-security and other types of technological breaches occurred involving their AI agents, or AI bots that are designed to operate somewhat autonomously.

Current and former staff of both companies also gained public attention with new warnings that AI technology was being developed without the ability to protect the whole of humanity from possible future harms enacted by AI tools.

In Anthropic's new documents, it reiterated promises it has made in the past to develop AI in a way that is beneficial to people, while at the same time warning investors of its dangers.

In its financial filings, Anthropic detailed losses that exceeded its revenue for the first half of the year, but said it would often make forward investments "that may seem irresponsibly large at first glance".

"In general, we will aim to be bold but sane, and to win trust with a track record of successful bets," the tech giant said.

Its success depends largely on its ability to develop the most advanced AI models, Anthropic said, adding, "any failure to do so could adversely affect our business".

Tech companies have been heavily investing in costly AI infrastructure and tools, like data centres and the informational models that underly all AI technology, pouring more than $1tn into the efforts over the last year alone.

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