By Dan Milmo
Publication Date: 2026-01-27 12:53:00
Humanity is entering a phase of artificial intelligence development that will “test who we are as a species,” said the boss of leading AI startup Anthropic, arguing that the world needs to “wake up” to the risks.
Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of the company behind the successful chatbot Claude, expressed his fears in a 19,000-word essay titled “The Youth of Technology.”
Describing the arrival of high-performance AI systems as potentially imminent, he wrote: “I believe we are entering a rite of passage both turbulent and inevitable that will test us as a species.”
Amodei added: “Humanity is being given almost unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political and technological systems have the maturity to wield it.”
The tech entrepreneur, whose company is reportedly worth $350bn (£255bn), said…
