Exclusive | Elizabeth Warren Demands Answers From Anthropic on ‘Existential’ Risks

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is “deeply troubled” by risks Anthropic raised in its initial public offering paperwork this week and is demanding answers to a long list of questions before the artificial-intelligence giant goes public, according to a copy of a letter she sent the company Tuesday that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The Massachusetts Democrat said in the letter to Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei that the risks posed by his company’s AI technology “demand greater scrutiny before they become intertwined with the public capital markets, which could further escalate both public safety and systemic financial risks.”

Anthropic didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter includes four pages of questions for which she requested “exhaustive responses” from Anthropic no later than Nov. 3. They include how the company can ensure its technology won’t cause an existential threat to humanity, details about its relationships with partners such as Amazon.com and Broadcom and how it plans to justify a valuation that could approach $2 trillion.

Anthropic is preparing to stage what could be the biggest IPO of all time, raising as much as $100 billion, the Journal has reported. Its Monday filing put it on track to go public as soon as the week before Thanksgiving.

In the filing, meant to whet investors’ appetites for the offering, Anthropic said its technology could transform how people code, conduct research, automate routine tasks and even help cure major diseases. At the same time, the company warned that AI could lead to the development of new bioweapons and “destabilize the geopolitical order.”

It isn’t the first time Warren has expressed concern about the development of AI or weighed in on a mega-IPO, and the letter is unlikely to have any major bearing on Anthropic’s plans given the high investor demand for the stock.

Warren, who met with Amodei in Washington earlier this year, is among the lawmakers who have called on the industry to slow the development of advanced AI to allow for stronger regulation. Ahead of SpaceX’s June offering, she urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to delay the rocket maker’s IPO, citing its high valuation, corporate governance structure and recent index rule changes. It went ahead as planned.