How Dario Amodei Spread Anthropic’s Religion and Stirred Up Silicon Valley
His leadership style has guided a remarkable ascent but frustrates some investors. It faces a new test with the company’s planned IPO.
An Anthropic meeting with investors and advisers earlier this year landed amid a historic run of corporate success. But public perception of AI was abysmal. One director suggested Anthropic use its new clout to go on a charm offensive like those Microsoft, Facebook and other tech giants engaged in during their boom years, to emphasize AI’s potential positive impact on areas like drug discovery.
CEO Dario Amodei rejected the idea. “That’s what people have done in the past,” he said according to a person present. “The stakes here are more existential.” The charm offensive never happened, but during the World Cup last month Anthropic launched a television commercial that opened with a series of dark images, including a row of tombstones, and emphasized the need to ask “hard questions” about AI.
Amodei, 43, has largely ignored business precedents and advice from those outside his tight inner circle as he guided Anthropic’s remarkable ascent into the AI leader and the fastest-growing major company in history. But now that he sits at the forefront of the greatest tech race ever, his ambitions for Anthropic and his views on regulation and AI’s threat to jobs are increasingly angering the rest of the industry and some in the U.S. government.