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Dario Amodei's AI vision of the future: What awaits us?

dario amodei

It seems to be a trend: CEOs of leading AI companies sharing their extensive and ambitious vision of the future during a financing round. For example, Sam Altman shared his 'Intelligence Age' at the end of September and last week it was the turn of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei with his ' Machines of Loving Grace' – How AI could Transform the world for the better.

Why is it important to take Amodei's vision seriously? He is considered someone with a lot of experience in the AI field and a lot of insight into AI developments. Amodei worked at OpenAI from 2016 as a chief AI researcher. In 2021, he left and started competitor Anthropic, better known for chatbot Claude. In September 2023, he was named one of the 'Most Influential People in AI' by TIME 100. When Sam Altman was fired from OpenAI in November, Amodei was even approached to succeed Altman and merge OpenAI and Anthropic - an offer he turned down.

Anthropic is currently raising a new round of funding at a valuation of between $30 billion and $40 billion, double the amount raised in its previous round earlier this year. Major investors include Amazon and Google. The extent to which Amodei's vision statement is more intended to raise expectations for investors than to be realistic expectations will become apparent in the coming years.

How does Dario Amodei see the near future?

Dario Amodei, like most other AI researchers, predicts the arrival of AGI , which he calls “powerful AI”. He thinks it could be here as early as 2026! This AI would be smarter than the smartest experts in the world, in all kinds of fields such as biology, programming, mathematics and literature. Moreover, this AI can do everything we do online: surf the internet, communicate, watch videos, order stuff and perform experiments with the help of robots. These AIs can also collaborate with other AIs, the so-called AI agents.

Amodei sees significant risks associated with powerful AI, but is adamant that the potential for positive change is enormous. He argues that many people underestimate both the benefits and risks of AI.

Dario Amodei believes that powerful AI can change the world dramatically and very quickly. He compares the coming developments to the enormous progress of the 20th century, with inventions such as antibiotics, vaccines and computers. Amodei believes that with AI we will make a similar leap forward in the next 5 to 10 years. He calls this the “compressed 21st century”, because we will make as much progress in 5 to 10 years as it would take at least 100 years without AI.

So what exactly will this 'powerful AI' do?

Amodei goes into depth in five different areas:

1. Biology and physical health

Amodei envisions a future where AI will revolutionize biology and medicine. AI will enable scientists to make new discoveries and develop more effective treatments much faster. 

He even thinks that AI will allow us to live an average of 150 years, and perhaps even much longer, if we want to and it is biologically possible! He calls this “biological freedom”: the ability to control our own biological process and choose how we want to live and age.

2. Neuroscience and Mental Health

In addition to physical health, AI will also have a major impact on our mental health. Amodei believes that AI can help us better understand the brain and treat mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and addiction more effectively.

He expects AI to lead to new insights into how the brain works and the development of new therapies and medicines. Amodei even talks about improving the “baseline of human experience”, by which he means that in the future we will have more control over our emotions and cognitive functions.

3. Economic development and poverty

Amodei believes that technological progress should not only benefit the rich. He believes that AI can play an important role in reducing poverty and inequality. AI can help stimulate economic growth in developing countries, optimize the distribution of resources and ensure access to essential goods and services, such as food, medicine and education.

4. Peace and Governance

AI can also have a positive impact on global politics. Amodei believes that AI can help strengthen democracies, combat propaganda and disinformation, and promote international cooperation. He argues that AI can be used to create a “globally free information environment” and break the power of authoritarian regimes. 

5. Work and meaning

Dario Amodei predicts that AI will drastically change the labor market. He expects that AI will initially work together with humans, but that in the long term many jobs will be taken over by AI. This could lead to more free time and the possibility to focus more on creative and meaningful activities.

At the same time, Amodei stresses that we need to think about the economic consequences of these changes and find solutions, such as a universal basic income, to ensure that everyone can live a good life, even without traditional work.

Science fiction or a realistic image?

It is difficult to predict exactly what impact AI will have and how quickly developments will proceed. There are limits to what AI can do, and some things may take much longer. Nevertheless, Amodei is convinced that AI will accelerate progress enormously in the short term.

What is striking is that the vision of almost all AI key players such as Sam Altman (OpenAI), Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Demis Hassabis (Google Deepmind), Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft AI), Yann LeCun (Meta AI), Elon Musk (X.ai) and Jensen Huang (NVIDIA) are quite similar in broad outlines and timelines. Meta AI's Yann LeCun is a bit more conservative and thinks that it will take longer before AI can match human levels – perhaps another ten years.

But it is clear that all these AI companies are striving for the same thing: AI that surpasses the level of humans. According to the people who have the most insight into it, that will be achieved in the slowest scenario in about ten years!

Until then, whether it happens faster or slower, it is vital that we prepare for it, think about how our role will change and use AI as much as possible for what we can best use it for now.

What do you think the world will look like when AI makes such a huge leap forward in 2026? And what impact will that have on your job and business?

We will discuss this in more depth during the webinar 'Marketing AI in Practice' on November 1 at 12:00.

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