The New York Times: Where does Dario Amodei's belief come from, from the doomsday theory of AI to founding Anthropic?

Author: The New York Times

Compiled by: Jiahua, ChainCatcher

Dario Amodei is one of the most steadfast advocates for safety in the AI industry. He believes that this technology could help humanity conquer diseases, accelerate scientific progress, and could also bring disaster if it spirals out of control.

This belief influenced his choices early on. During his time at OpenAI, he tried to integrate his safety philosophy into AI development and had disagreements with colleagues over ethical oversight and the GPT project. After leaving OpenAI, he co-founded Anthropic with his sister and other colleagues.

To supporters, Dario is trying to develop AI responsibly; to critics, his emphasis on safety raises another question: Who has the authority to decide how AI should develop, and who defines its boundaries?

The New York Times interviewed Dario's classmates, friends, teachers, and former colleagues to trace his growth and sources of thought. Dario himself declined to be interviewed. The following is the main text.

One evening in 2007, Dario Amodei, then a PhD student at Princeton University, hosted a visiting friend. He had just finished reading "The Singularity Is Near," published in 2005 by computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, and was eager to share the book's ideas with his friend.

Kurzweil predicts in the book that artificial intelligence will eventually surpass the human brain, ushering in a moment known as the "singularity." Dario, twirling his hair with his fingers, told his friend Colin Heckman that this moment could arrive within their lifetime.

"He was fascinated," said Heckman, who attended the same high school as Dario in San Francisco. "He said AI had to be created in the right way, or we would be finished."

At 24, Dario was still a physics PhD student, in a phase of absorbing vast amounts of information. He was engrossed in reading relatively niche blogs like "Accelerating Future" and "Overcoming Bias," where bloggers discussed the possibility of AI destroying humanity.

He also delved into the online forum of GiveWell. GiveWell is an organization dedicated to maximizing the effectiveness of charitable donations, where intellectuals discuss how to earn the most money for charitable causes.

We interviewed more than twenty of Dario's classmates, friends, teachers, and colleagues. Their accounts show that these books, blogs, and online communities continue to influence him and provide clues to understanding how the 43-year-old CEO of Anthropic views AI. Anthropic is expected to go public this month, potentially becoming one of the largest IPOs in the world.

His friends and colleagues say that the core of Dario's worldview is two intertwined ideas. Both firmly believe that mathematical reasoning can change the future of humanity.

One is "rationalism," which emphasizes viewing the world in a calm and rational manner. Self-taught AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky and others adhere to this idea, believing that AI will become powerful enough to potentially destroy society.

The other is "effective altruism," which has developed alongside rationalism, attempting to maximize social welfare through precise mathematical calculations.

His friends and colleagues say that for Dario, these two currents merge into a steadfast belief: AI could be extremely dangerous, and only he and like-minded technical experts are worthy of being entrusted with developing this technology. This drives him to create AI ahead of those who do not care about human safety and fuels his desire to control this technology.

In an article published in September calling for a slowdown in AI development, Dario wrote: "Only by building this technology in the right way can we reap its benefits. As long as we can make good use of the time we have gained, it is worth approaching things with an extra cautious attitude to get it right."

These ideas form the foundation of Anthropic. In 2021, Dario co-founded the company with his sister Daniela Amodei and five others. They all had connections to the rationalism and effective altruism communities. As the company grew, their views gained increasing attention, and Dario has consistently and vigorously promoted these ideas.

Caption: Anthropic co-founder Daniela Amodei, photographed in the San Francisco office in 2023. She has a close relationship with her brother Dario.

Dario is also involved in discussions on geopolitical issues. He has stated that the U.S. should restrict chip sales to China to weaken China's competitiveness in AI. He calls for regulation of AI to prevent the technology from spiraling out of control. In a dispute with the U.S. Department of Defense, he also stated that AI should not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for autonomous weapons.

"He genuinely believes we face enormous existential risks," said Nathan Avery. Avery ran cross country with Dario in high school, and the two have had many deep conversations over the years, although they have gradually drifted apart. "He feels he needs to put himself in a position to take action on this."

Dario is a billionaire, and with Anthropic's public listing, his wealth is expected to grow. He declined to be interviewed through a company representative.

His ideas have garnered him supporters, especially among some practitioners in the AI safety field. These individuals believe Dario is developing AI responsibly.

But this has also made him enemies in Silicon Valley and Washington, with critics including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia's Jensen Huang. They have criticized him as a "doomsayer," attempting to consolidate power in the AI field for himself. In September, the U.S. Department of Defense posted on social media: "Americanism, not effective altruism."

Dario seems to realize that his ideas anger some people, so he has tried to publicly distinguish his beliefs from rationalism and effective altruism. In 2023, he stated on The New York Times podcast "Hard Fork" that he does not consider himself an effective altruist.

"I agree with some of the ideas," he said, but he opposes "dividing people into different tribes."

"Dario, relax!"

Dario and his sister Daniela grew up in the Mission District of San Francisco. Their father, Riccardo Amodei, was a leather craftsman, and their mother, Elena Engel, managed the renovation of public libraries. Divorce documents show that the couple separated in 1991.

By the time Dario was in eighth grade at Loughton Alternative School, he was already standing out. In 1997, he and a classmate were named "Most Likely to Succeed," holding dollar bills in their graduation yearbook photo.

While attending Lowell High School, a top public high school in San Francisco, Dario was an eager learner and also took classes at the University of California, Berkeley. Classmates said he would contemplate ideas like utilitarianism. Utilitarianism advocates that people should create the greatest happiness for the greatest number of lives. He was also concerned that the Y2K problem (at the time, some computer programs recorded years with only two digits, which could lead to global computer system failures when "00" was interpreted as 1900) could cause widespread chaos.

Richard Shapiro, then a physics teacher at Lowell High School, said Dario often felt he had not performed well on exams.

"I would shout at him: 'Dario, relax!'" Shapiro said.

In 2001, Dario entered the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, but he frequently returned to San Francisco to visit friends and family. On one visit home, he went to a sushi restaurant with Avery and Heckman, and the three discussed utilitarianism. Dario was a vegetarian, but he believed it was acceptable to eat crabs because they are invertebrates.

During the meal, Heckman posed a thought experiment: If a person continuously killed chickens, under what circumstances would it make sense to kill that person to prevent more chickens from being killed?

Avery recalled that Dario chuckled lightly and then said that from a utilitarian perspective, when the number of chickens reached a certain level, their lives might be more important than one person's life.

Friends say Dario has identified as an atheist, but he still holds firm beliefs. In 2003, he drove Avery and others to San Francisco to participate in a protest against the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

The following year, Dario transferred to Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley. This transfer also brought him closer to his sister, who was attending high school nearby.

In 2023, he mentioned his sister on a podcast, saying, "We always wanted to save the world together."

Reflections on Time and Life

After graduating from Stanford University in 2006, Dario entered Princeton University to pursue a PhD in physics, ultimately focusing on applying physics to biology and computational neuroscience. That year, his father, who had hepatitis C, passed away.

Dario immersed himself in research on retinal cells and began to develop an interest in technologies that could accelerate scientific progress.

Jade Wang, who dated Dario and co-founded a scientific discussion group with him, said they often discussed whether scientists who spend their lives researching a particular disease could make a greater impact by developing technologies or methods for the entire field.

She said Dario mentioned his father: before the advent of drugs that could treat most hepatitis C patients, his father had passed away.

Caption: Ray Kurzweil, author of "The Singularity Is Near." Dario is very interested in his writings on artificial intelligence.

At that time, Dario had already begun to align with the works of Kurzweil and rationalist leader Yudkowsky. He was particularly interested in one of Kurzweil's points: advanced technology has the potential to help humanity transcend its natural limitations. This idea is known as "transhumanism."

When Heckman visited Princeton in 2007, Dario told him that the singularity would arrive before 2040, and that one day humans might merge their thoughts with machines.

Heckman recalled that Dario stated at the time: "As time goes on, we will become a new superintelligent AI, or a hybrid of AI and humans."

Dario was so fascinated by this idea that he encouraged friends and his sister to attend the annual conference hosted by Yudkowsky's Singularity Institute, now known as the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.

In an email from 2008 seen by The New York Times, Dario told a friend that Yudkowsky was "one of the most profound thinkers I've ever encountered" and was "explicitly trying to bring about a Singularity that is beneficial to humanity."

Yudkowsky stated in an email to The New York Times that Dario "currently does not seek or accept my advice, and I do not recall him ever having done so."

Caption: Self-taught AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky. Dario began to identify with his writings. Yudkowsky believes that AI will become powerful enough to destroy society.

Around the same time, Dario also began communicating with Elon Musk, the founder of the rocket company SpaceX. Two people familiar with their communications said Dario had told friends that he admired the tech giant and considered working for him, but ultimately did not join the space startup.

In 2008, Dario encountered GiveWell while reading economist Tyler Cowen's blog. Cowen mentioned that the organization provided "interesting suggestions" regarding charities.

Dario became active in GiveWell's mailing list and forums, discussing how to conduct charitable and scientific work in an effective altruism manner. An email seen by The New York Times showed that in 2010, he wrote that he was "considering a career in finance so that I can donate more money than I currently do."

That same year, Dario discussed his decision to donate $10,000 in a GiveWell blog post. He was choosing between two donation recipients: one was the "Stop TB Partnership," which focuses on preventing adult tuberculosis, and the other was VillageReach, which helps vaccinate children in African villages.

Dario wrote that the "Stop TB Partnership" had a "better cost-effectiveness" because the organization served adults, and "adults have deeper and more meaningful experiences than infants." He added, "I believe the death of an adult may be two to three times more serious than the death of an infant."

However, after further comparing how the two organizations executed their projects, Dario ultimately changed his mind and believed that VillageReach's work was more effective.

In 2011, he began postdoctoral research at Stanford University, studying cancer cells. Friends said that in his personal life, he tried taking anti-aging supplements, adhered to a strict swimming regimen, and developed an interest in reducing caloric intake. Some studies suggest that reducing caloric intake can extend the lifespan of laboratory mice.

"He often talked about the finiteness of time and how time is the only non-renewable resource," Avery said. He added that Dario was "almost harsh about time."

Two people who knew him said that in 2014, Dario was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which deepened his feelings. He underwent chemotherapy and eventually made a full recovery.

By then, he had established a close relationship with one of the founders of GiveWell, Holden Karnofsky. GiveWell began collaborating with Good Ventures, a charity founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna, which funds effective altruism-related causes.

Dario began advising on life sciences funding for the collaborative project GiveWell Labs.

Caption: One of the founders of GiveWell, Holden Karnofsky (right), photographed in 2012. Dario was active in GiveWell's online forums.

At that time, Karnofsky was dating Daniela. The two moved into a shared house in San Francisco, which later included Dario, theoretical physicist Jared Kaplan, and college dropout Christopher Olah. Dario had tutored Olah in math.

Three people who visited the residence said the roommates discussed Yudkowsky's articles, exploring rationalism and effective altruism. They also attended the annual counterculture gathering "Burning Man" in the Nevada desert, sometimes dressing in animal costumes.

Kaplan and Olah later co-founded Anthropic with the Amodei siblings. In 2025, Karnofsky also began working for the company.

From Baidu, Google to OpenAI

In the early 2010s, advancements in machine learning prompted tech companies to increase their investments in AI. Machine learning allows computers to learn how to perform tasks by analyzing data.

Chinese internet giant Baidu was one of the companies involved. Baidu opened a lab in Sunnyvale, California, and hired AI pioneer Andrew Ng from Google as its chief scientist.

Dario joined Baidu in 2014 and quickly became known for working overnight in the office and speaking his mind.

Caption: AI pioneer Andrew Ng, who has worked at Google and Baidu. Dario joined Baidu to conduct AI research.

Gregory Diamos, a researcher who worked with Dario at Baidu, said, "Dario would argue very passionately almost every chance he got."

Even in the early stages of this round of AI development, Dario was already concerned about the potential dangers of the technology. Diamos recalled that in 2015, Dario told colleagues that AI might soon reach or exceed human brain capabilities, and therefore companies developing AI should not shy away from the possibility of technology going out of control.

That same year, Dario joined Google's AI lab Google Brain, focusing on AI safety. He, along with five other researchers, including his roommate Olah, published a paper in 2016 titled "Concrete Problems in AI Safety," outlining the anomalous behaviors AI could exhibit if developed improperly.

In 2016, Dario joined a new AI project: the nonprofit organization OpenAI. He led OpenAI's safety team and another research team studying "scaling laws." Scaling laws describe how the performance of AI models may improve as the model size, training data, and computational resources increase.

At OpenAI: Ideas, Power, and Disagreements

Seven people who worked with Dario said that during his time at OpenAI, his belief in the correct way to develop AI became more steadfast. He spoke more frequently about the power and potential dangers of AI and took action to incorporate his ideas into the development process of the technology.

For example, in November 2016, three days after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, Dario wrote in OpenAI's internal communication app that he was concerned the U.S. was sliding into authoritarianism.

Messages seen by The New York Times showed that he expressed he "could not in good conscience research technology with powerful military applications in an authoritarian country."

Internal messages indicated that Dario also wrote that investor Peter Thiel should be "morally condemned" for donating $1.25 million to Trump's campaign, and that OpenAI should no longer accept his money. (Thiel's venture capital firm Founders Fund later invested in Anthropic.)

Dario also helped OpenAI secure a partnership with funders who shared his views. Three people familiar with the arrangement said that in 2017, he helped OpenAI connect with the charity run by Karnofsky, of which he was a technical advisor.

Karnofsky's organization is now called Coefficient Giving and donated $30 million to OpenAI. Karnofsky also joined the board of OpenAI.

Caption: Dario working at OpenAI in 2017, and Daniela working at OpenAI in 2019.

Later that same year, Karnofsky married Daniela. According to their wedding website, guests received plush toys, and those who arranged "the most romantic pairings between different characters" would receive rewards.

Dario attended the wedding wearing a panda headpiece, with the dress code for the reception being "quirky formal." In a photo seen by The New York Times, he appeared in this outfit alongside Olah, who wore a giraffe headpiece, and his then-girlfriend Cami Clark. He married Clark in 2022.

In 2018, Daniela joined OpenAI and eventually became the vice president responsible for safety and policy. Some employees soon began to question the growing influence of the sibling duo.

Three people familiar with the discussions said that in December of that year, OpenAI researcher Joshua Achiam told CEO Sam Altman that appointing Dario as the company's chief ethics officer was unwise. Achiam pointed to the growing power of the Amodei siblings and stated that oversight of AI should be shared among people with differing viewpoints.

When Achiam insisted that an external expert should be appointed as chief ethics officer, Dario confronted him directly. Insiders said Dario raised his voice, stating that no one was more suited for the position than himself.

In 2018, the Amodei siblings took over a project at the company called GPT. GPT stands for "Generative Pre-trained Transformer."

Six former employees of the company said they explored a safety technology designed to teach AI to complete tasks through human instructions.

This approach later became a hallmark of Dario's career: bringing AI closer to potential dangers and then testing it with safety technology.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman wanted to be involved in the GPT project but was resisted by the Amodei siblings. Two people familiar with the company's situation said Dario repeatedly told Altman that he would leave if he did not keep Brockman away from the work.

A person familiar with Altman's thoughts said Altman felt these ultimatums were excessive and therefore rejected the siblings' request.

In December 2020, the Amodei siblings and other colleagues left OpenAI. A few months later, they founded Anthropic.

Caption: In May of this year, at the Anthropic developer conference held in San Francisco, the Amodei siblings shared the stage with the company's Chief Product Officer Ami Vora (left).