Terrifying secret clauses inside Anthropic's own IPO filings reveal how AI tech may destroy the world

Anthropic's own IPO pitch deck to prospective stock owners has revealed the terrifying anxieties its bosses have about where the techonoloy may take humanity. The AI company is poised to have the biggest ever initial public offering on Wall Street after filing to go public on Monday, with a valuation tipped to reach up to $2 trillion. However, Anthropic's IPO prospectus goes into an unnerving amount of detail over philosophical and moral conundrums - which is not typical for most normal companies registering on the stock market.The super intelligence firm, headed by intensely safety-focused Dario Amodei, sprinkled their sales pitch with anxious disclaimers about AI's ruinous potential.Amodei and his six co-founders warned: 'Sufficiently advanced AI systems could, if not developed, deployed, and operated with appropriate safeguards, oversight, and security measures, pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.'Anthropic starts its prospectus to potential investors: 'We believe that AI is one of the most consequential technologies in human history.'But the doubt already seeps in: 'If managed well, it could rapidly accelerate scientific innovation, greatly increase economic growth rates, bring cures for major diseases within reach, and solve problems that have resisted generations of human effort.' The prospectus, filled with colorful graphics of cells and circular scientific artwork ahead of 335 pages of text, laid bare the risks of AI in daunting detail. The super intelligence firm, headed by intensely safety-focused Dario Amodei (pictured), sprinkled their sales pitch with anxious disclaimers about AI's ruinous potential People protest artificial intelligence and data centers ahead of a New York City Council Committee hearing on the risks and regulation of artificial intelligence The first page of Anthropic's IPO prospectus - filled with colorful graphics of cells and circular scientific artworkIt reads: 'To build AI is to harness cognition itself, and anything so powerful can be used for ill as well as good.'Anthropic is a deeply values-driven organization, founded in large part to help the world realize AI's benefits and avoid its dangers.'This is a reference to Amodei's abrupt departure from the artificial intelligence company he worked for up until 2020, Sam Altman's OpenAI. He left Altman's firm because of a breakdown of trust in management and integral disagreements over AI safety and governance. This pushed Amodei to set up his own competing company with his sister, Daniela, in 2021. The propsectus continues listing the risky factors that are plaguing their AI company: misuse, loss of control, authoritarian abuse, and economic disruption. It reads: 'Authoritarian governments may use AI to create high-tech surveillance states, deepen repression, and make themselves much more difficult to dislodge.'AI can be misused by those who wish to do harm, for example to conduct cyberattacks or to design biological weapons.'For this, the Anthropic boss said that they already 'regularly' shut down attempts by bad actors to misuse their AI chatbots - including when the terrorist Houthi group used Claude to build ballistic milles earlier this year. Amodei then issued a rather sinister warning about what may happen if the AI starts working on its own without any humans controlling it. '[This] could be a global security threat of the first order.' The Anthropic CEO also referenced how he's aware the AI boom will likely mean entire workforces are wiped out, causing mass economic disruption 'similar to what has happened with previous technologies... but greater in magnitude.'Artificial intelligence has been compared to the Industrial Revolution in the way it is fundamentally changing the way we work, make money, and operate as a society. Amodei said the company is committed to 'running studies' to help governments figure out how best to deal with potential economic downfalls triggered by AI. The CEO's biggest concern is also written out in the prospectus - the fact that his technology 'poses catastrophic or existential risk to humanity.' Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, Anthropic Co-Founder and Chief Compute Officer Tom Brown, and Atreides Management Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer Gavin Baker during National Design Studio's launch event for America.gov in September People protest artificial intelligence and data centers ahead of a New York City Council CommitteeThis ultimate risk factor, Amodei hopes, can be mitigated if the tech is 'developed, deployed, and operated with appropriate safeguards, oversight, and security measures.'But apart from the serious notes of doom and gloom, Anthrophic used their opening IPO letter to gush about the ways in which their super technology is helping humanity.'In California, Claude is helping to shorten the lines at the DMV, and to better serve people on Medicaid. In the United Kingdom, it is helping job seekers find their way through government services.'Amodei lead on its successes with breakthroughs that AI can make in biology and medicine, namely to cure diseases that have 'plagued humanity for millennia.'He hinted that more innovation is on the horizon - including making a tool for gene editing.'We have started to directly make biological discoveries with Claude: among them is the discovery of a molecular machine that might have the potential to be developed into a novel biotechnology tool, perhaps for gene editing.' Rather idyllically, Amodei also painted a picture where his AI can 'bend the arc of geopolitical history in the direction of freedom.'And at the pinnacle, Anthrophic wants to 'ensure that free societies,' like the United States, 'lead in the world's most powerful technology.' Amodei finished the prospectus by saying: 'We hope you will see it as an opportunity to be part of something greater. The advent of machine intelligence is one of the seminal moments in human history. 'We have a rare opportunity to shape it for the better.'