Innovation3 min(s) read
Published 15:58 06 Jun 2026 GMT
The founder of an AI giant has called on companies to slow the progression of artificial intelligence as it is becoming a serious threat to humans.
Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark has issued a desperate warning that the technology has developed so rapidly that it is almost able to develop without any human input.
In a recent interview on BBC Newsnight, Clark told the host: "You want the option to be able to take your foot off the gas and put your foot on the brake.
"Right now, it's like the AI industry has a gas pedal, but it doesn't have a brake pedal."
He warned that AI needs to be controlled by government policy because it will only get more powerful and begin to have serious and potentially dangerous impacts on society.
Clark said: "The world needs to do some thinking, and we need to eventually develop some new regulations that allow us to be confident in these systems.
"Society's response was to come up with a sensible policy and regulatory framework that gave people confidence in oil and the benefits that oil could provide to the world, and meant that you didn't have to worry about the personalities of the people leading the companies."
According to the tech mogul, Anthropic's successful chatbot, Claude, is operating on code of which 80% the system wrote itself, he claims that getting to 100% computer driven is possible within two years.
Despite his concerns, Clark’s company welcomed an executive order on AI from US President Donald Trump that was rather laid back in its restrictions on the companies.
The order rules that AI companies do not have to comply with safety testing by the government. Instead, it remains voluntary.
Other leading AI companies, including OpenAI and Google, have also said they will not pause their own research and instead will continue pursuing advances in the technology.
According to Clark, he chose to speak out about the growing capability of AI to "tell the world what we're seeing inside these companies with this unusual technology".
Anthropic’s founder added: "I am worried for my kids if we as a society don't have a serious conversation about what the implications of AI's continued advances mean.
"There are potentially great benefits. There are also risks."
However, as ChatGPT-made branding proves, there is some hope left for creatives, as people with original ideas might actually have an advantage over AI.
Thankfully, Clark also said: "There are open questions about whether AI systems can be truly creative… There is not really evidence for that yet.
"At Anthropic, we're now limited more by the ability to generate good ideas than the ability to do the engineering to turn those ideas into reality."
