Anthropic investor Joe Lonsdale says AI firms stoke fear to sway policy

Joe Lonsdale, an investor in Anthropic and co-founder of Palantir, said on Friday that efforts by some leading artificial intelligence companies to warn of existential risks from AI amounted to a dangerous attempt to shape public policy. He spoke at the Reuters Momentum AI Austin event.

Regulation and market power

Lonsdale, also the founder of the venture capital firm 8VC, criticized what he described as efforts by people close to Anthropic and at OpenAI to fund outside groups advocating stronger AI regulation. He argued that this helps a few leading companies shape the rules governing the industry and entrench their market power.

“I think that what OpenAI and Anthropic are pushing right now is very dangerous, and we don’t want an oligopoly that controls all of our policy here with the government,” he said. “Safety is a real thing, but fear and regulation: we’ve got to be really careful how we respond to those things.”

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who heads SpaceX, have all called this month for leading AI companies to slow development of their most advanced models, warning that increasingly powerful systems could pose existential risks if safeguards fail to keep pace.

Praise for Anthropic

Lonsdale, 44, tempered his criticism with praise for Amodei and for Anthropic, in which he is a small investor. He said the company had assembled exceptional talent and emerged as a leader in the AI race. “It’s very hard for anyone to second-guess the highest-performing company in the world over the last few years,” he said. “I’m proud to be an investor in Anthropic.”

Ukraine, autonomous weapons and the Pentagon

Lonsdale, who has backed defence firms including Anduril, said some of them will likely buy Ukrainian defence companies. Ukrainian drone and defence technology firms have made rapid advances by adapting battlefield systems during Russia’s war, he said, and he sees room for deeper partnerships and acquisitions.

He also said AI-powered autonomous weapons are the future of warfare, but accountability must stay with military leaders. The question has taken on urgency in Ukraine, where drones and increasingly automated systems are central to combat, and it was raised by this year’s US-Iran war, after a strike on a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, killed more than 175 children and teachers, according to Iranian officials. Reuters reported that a preliminary US military investigation found US forces were likely responsible.

Lonsdale has been mentioned as a possible candidate for a senior Pentagon leadership role. Asked whether he would serve if asked, he said his priority was his family and his businesses, adding that he would consider it if a president asked.