Anthropic co-founder on AI safety and power
Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark told the BBC in mid-September that a mandatory, third-party-verifiable 'kill switch' allowing AI systems to be shut down if they become dangerous may need to become a legal requirement for AI companies, saying 'most labs have different ways of being able to pull the plug' but that policymakers may eventually need to enforce having one. Clark's comments followed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's weekend call for AI development to slow and be more closely monitored, and came amid a wave of public warnings from AI figures: Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger estimated the chance of human extinction from AI within a decade at over 10%, a figure Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton called 'not unreasonable,' while Clark himself said 'we are rolling dice with immense risks' by leaving the industry effectively unregulated. US lawmakers had introduced a 'Kill Switch Act' that would require companies to maintain a shutdown mechanism for AI tools and empower government agencies to demand one be triggered, but President Trump dismissed AI-extinction fears as a 'HOAX' and accused unspecified critics of running a 'SICK conspiracy' against AI and data centers; the UK government separately rejected mandating a kill switch, arguing it 'would not prevent them being developed or misused elsewhere.'
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As it ran
15 September 2026
- AI 'kill switch' may need to be mandatory, Anthropic co-founder tells BBC BBC News
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- Trump won’t sign AI bill he doesn’t personally lead, Axios co-founder says Fox News