SNL Spoofs AI Safety

In the sketch, Wickline’s fictional Amodei joked that AI was “the devil” and that executives “do not condone what we are doing”; when asked about AI curing cancer, he said there was a 10% chance in 10 years that cancer would no longer be a problem for anyone.

The SNL segment also had Wickline’s Amodei say, “AI is not a weapon, it’s a tool: A tool for building weapons,” and urge viewers to “urge me to stop.”

Amodei’s warnings followed a media tour by former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who said AI labs were “gambling with our lives.” In recent weeks, Amodei has also promoted Anthropic’s work in medical research and protein structure, and has stopped making dire predictions about an AI doomsday.

Anthropic’s essay proposal called for outside evaluators and shared standards to help hold AI companies accountable, alongside a slower development pace so safety work could catch up.