FuriaHubAnthropic CEO says the AI backlash is “fundamentally a crisis of trust”
Dario Amodei answered investor Gavin Baker’s claim that his risk warnings fueled US opposition to data centers. He said the public already distrusts companies, governments, and tech.
On August 16 TechCrunch reported comments from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei responding to investor Gavin Baker. Baker had argued, on the All-In podcast and on X, that Amodei’s warnings about AI danger helped fuel a backlash in the United States, especially against data centers.
What Amodei accepted — and what he rejected
Amodei agreed that “the public has a negative view of AI” and that “this is a big problem.” He disagreed that the negativity is “primarily caused” by him “or any other AI leader warning about AI’s risks.”
“I think it is fundamentally a crisis of trust,” he wrote. “I think that ordinary people don’t trust companies, governments, or the tech industry and always suspect that we are cooking up some new way to screw them over.”
The rules he wants
In the same thread he said the right “rules of the road” can address cyber, bio, and alignment risks, constrain the institutional power of frontier AI companies, and still leave room for open-weights models while dealing with the specific risks those models bring. He also said his public writing has been “about equally balanced between risks and benefits.”
Takeaways
- Published as Amodei’s reply on X, August 15; covered August 16
- He accepts the backlash exists and rejects that risk talk caused it
- He frames the fix as rules that cover both frontier labs and open weights
Source: TechCrunch
