Part 4/13:
This is a significant departure from the common Hollywood portrayal of AI as an autonomous, existential threat. Amodei argues that AI technologies are machines—man-made machinery, built with our compute and chip breakthroughs, not entities with inherent survival instincts. As he puts it, "we are the ones in control, not the machines" — a reassuring perspective, especially amidst fears of an AI uprising.
While acknowledging the potential dangers, Amodei underscores that these dangers are avoidable with responsible development and regulatory oversight. Since AI systems can be turned off or unplugged at will, the idea that they might develop an unstoppable will is, in his view, a fallacy at this stage.