Anthropic warns of 'catastrophic risk' to humankind ahead of blockbuster share listing
BBC News ● Covered by 5 sources
Anthropic says AI could pose existential risks as it lines up a US stock listing. The Claude maker also showed huge losses, even with $112.4bn in cash and $16.3bn in revenue.
Based on reporting by BBC News — read the original for the full story.
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Anthropic has put a blunt warning in front of investors: its own filing says advanced AI systems could create “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” if they are misused, copied, weaponised or left too autonomous. That is a striking thing to say while preparing a public offering, but it also fits a company trying to sell itself as both ambitious and cautious at once.
The filing came as Anthropic laid out some eye-catching numbers. In the first half of the year it reported losses of more than $80.7bn, while also saying it had $112.4bn in cash or equivalents and brought in $16.3bn in revenue over the same period. It also said it sometimes makes forward investments that may look “irresponsibly large at first glance”, then added that it aims to be “bold but sane”.
The company has not said how many shares it plans to sell, what price range it is targeting, or when the listing will happen. What it has said is that it will list on Nasdaq under the symbol ANT. If it goes ahead as expected, Anthropic would be the first true AI company to hit the public markets, making it a live test of how investors value the sector’s promise against its risks.
That tension runs through the whole filing. Anthropic said concerns about AI safety have come from policymakers, regulators, researchers and people inside the company itself. It also said its success depends on building the most advanced AI models, while warning that failure to do so could hurt the business. OpenAI, its biggest rival, has also said it wants to go public, with that listing now expected early next year according to a person familiar with the plan.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the modern AI playbook in one filing: scare the public, reassure the market, then ask for billions anyway. Anthropic is right to talk about catastrophic risk, but the industry keeps treating safety like a memo and scale like a religion. That usually ends well for lawyers and badly for everyone else.
Read more about this at: BBC News