The Economist.
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Should a handful of men be entrusted with the world's most potent new technology?
Five geeks so famous that they can be identified by their first names, Dario, Demis, Elon, Mark and Sam.
Exercise almost godlike command over the artificial intelligence models that will shape the future.
The Trump administration has stood aside, even as those models have gained jaw-dropping capabilities,
convinced that unfettered competition between private firms is the best way
to ensure America wins the AI race against China.
Until now.
Suddenly America's freewheeling treatment of AI looks as if it is coming to an end.
The reason is that the model's dizzying progress also poses a threat to America's own national security,
unnerving members of the Trump administration previously more inclined to worry about over-regulation.
At the same time, growing resentment among American voters is turning AI into a political lightning rod.
A laissez-faire approach is no longer politically tenable or strategically wise.
The Watershed was Anthropic's announcement of Claude Mythos on April 7th.
The model maker's latest creation is so startlingly good at finding software vulnerabilities that,
in the wrong hands, it would threaten critical infrastructure, from banks to hospitals.