Anthropic CEO: regulate AI like planes 🚨—also, here is a more powerful AI

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Wednesday called on governments to move beyond studying artificial intelligence regulation and impose binding safety requirements on the most powerful AI systems, warning that current transparency rules are no longer sufficient as model capabilities accelerate. In an essay titled "Policy on the AI Exponential," Amodei argued that "AI is advancing at a lightning pace—in only four years, AI models have gone from barely being able to write a coherent line of code to writing most of the code at major AI companies," and said the United States needs a regulatory framework with mandatory third-party testing, government authority to block unsafe deployments, and requirements that companies secure model weights, conduct safety testing, and report serious incidents.

Amodei's proposal borrows from the structure used by the Federal Aviation Administration. "Frontier AI models, like airplanes, should be required to go through technical testing and auditing, and their release should be blocked or reversed as a threat to public safety if they do not meet high standards of safety," he wrote, adding, "I am grateful to see the Trump administration's Executive Order move incrementally towards a greater role for government in AI, though Anthropic's proposal recommends even further action." He also urged governments to prepare for AI-driven job displacement and advances in drug development, restrict the use of AI-enabled surveillance and autonomous weapons in domestic law enforcement, and deepen cooperation among democratic nations on critical AI technologies, writing that "enduring job displacement is undesirable and dangerous, and we should do everything we can to minimize or prevent it, not to bring it about," and that "any response to AI-driven job displacement needs to address both the need to provide for everyone economically, and the need for people to find meaning, purpose, and agency."

The essay was published the same week Anthropic expanded access to its latest frontier model, launching Claude Fable 5 on Tuesday as a public-facing version of the restricted Claude Mythos 5, which is available to cybersecurity organizations and government partners. Researchers at the UK's AI Security Institute found that Claude Mythos 5 can autonomously execute complex cyber attacks, according to Amodei. Claude Fable 5 routes certain requests involving cybersecurity, biology, chemistry, and AI development to the less capable Claude Opus 4.8 as a safeguard against misuse, a launch that drew public criticism. Amodei's essay does not name any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, and no crypto market figures were disclosed in the policy proposal.