Dario Amodei

In order of severity, I am worried about…

The CCP.

China is second only to the United States in AI capabilities and is the country with the greatest likelihood of surpassing the United States in those capabilities.

Their government is currently autocratic and operates a high-tech surveillance state.

It has deployed AI-based surveillance already, including in the repression of Uyghurs, and is believed to employ algorithmic propaganda via TikTok in addition to its many other international propaganda efforts.

They have hands down the clearest path to the AI-enabled totalitarian nightmare I laid out above.

It may even be the default outcome within China, as well as within other autocratic states to whom the CCP exports surveillance technology.

I have written often about the threat of the CCP taking the lead in AI and the existential imperative to prevent them from doing so.

This is why.

To be clear, I am not singling out China out of animus to them in particular, they are simply the country that most combines AI prowess, an autocratic government, and a high-tech surveillance state.

If anything, it is the Chinese people themselves who are most likely to suffer from the CCP's AI-enabled repression, and they have no voice in the actions of their government.

I greatly admire and respect the Chinese people and support the many brave dissidents within China and their struggle for freedom.

Democracy is competitive in AI.

As I wrote above, democracies have a legitimate interest in some AI-powered military and geopolitical tools, because democratic governments offer the best chance to counter the use of these tools by autocracies.

Broadly, I am supportive of arming democracies with the tools needed to defeat autocracies in the age of AI.

I simply don't think there is any other way.

But we cannot ignore the potential for abuse of these technologies by democratic governments themselves.

Democracies normally have safeguards that prevent their military and intelligence apparatus from being turned inwards against their own population, but because AI tools require so few people to operate, there is potential for them to circumvent these safeguards and the norms that support them.

It is also worth noting that some of these safeguards are already gradually eroding in some democracies.

Thus, we should arm democracies with AI, but we should do so carefully and within limits.