"Guido Reichstadter, for the past week, has gone without a calorie. He's survived on vitamins and electrolytes, conducting a hunger strike to protest the San Francisco startup Anthropic 's pursuit of super-powerful artificial intelligence. Reichstadter, on Tuesday, the eighth day of his protest, sat hunched in a rollator outside the company's South of Market office. He drank from a bottle of water gifted to him by a construction worker employed in Anthropic's building."
"AI's risks, Reichstadter feels, are both unpredictable and potentially catastrophic. He argued that whatever breakthrough helps a company make smarter-than-human AI, often described as "artificial general intelligence" (AGI) or "superintelligence," could be a "point of no return" for society. Rogue actors could then use AI tools to make hyper-deadly biological weapons, he posited, before mentioning the idea that AI could gradually displace people from governments and other institutions, sucking up resources needed for human survival."
Guido Reichstadter is conducting a hunger strike outside Anthropic, surviving on vitamins and electrolytes while demanding a face-to-face meeting with CEO Dario Amodei. He seeks either a shutdown of Anthropic's AI development or an explanation justifying continued work on powerful systems. Reichstadter believes breakthroughs toward artificial general intelligence or superintelligence could be unpredictable and potentially catastrophic, including the use of AI to create hyper-deadly biological weapons and the gradual displacement of people from governments and institutions. He first learned about AGI risks around 2000 while studying math and physics, later ran a jewelry business, and has inspired other hunger strikers protesting AI labs.
Read at SFGATE
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