AI safety warnings trigger sharp sell-off in global AI

What happened

3 per cent during Asian trade. 2 per cent in Japan. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, in a lengthy essay shared on X on Saturday, ‌called on AI companies ⁠to slow ⁠the rate at which they advance model capabilities amid mounting fears of misuse of artificial intelligence. Both Elon Musk, who runs xAI, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said that they agree with Amodei. 7 per cent.

Why it matters

"Selling pressure is likely to hit AI and semiconductor-related stocks in Tokyo following a series of weekend ​comments calling for a slowdown in the pace of AI development," Takayuki Miyajima, senior economist at Sony Financial Group, said ⁠in a ‌note. 8 per cent. 5 per cent after making a ​discounted share placement.

San Francisco-based Anthropic released a threat intelligence report on Thursday detailing how several actors had used its Claude AI ​models for activities ranging from weapons development and cyber operations to surveillance and fraud.

AI-related trades have powered much of the gains in global equities ‌since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, but more recently cyberattacks by rogue AI agents and public discontent with data centre construction have raised opposition to the development of the industry.

What to watch

Michael Burry, whose prescient bets against the US housing market before the 2008 financial crisis were chronicled in the movie "The Big Short", said in a message on X the warnings were "hype ​and puffery" and "cover for real uncontrollable slowing growth". "Their valuations assume both strong demand and a relentless pace of technological progress," she said.

"But the bigger question for markets around AI was who would ultimately earn the return on all the capital being spent on building new capacity, said Sebastien Mallet, portfolio manager at T. "There is little doubt that AI will change the world," he said. "