Statement: Anthropic warns of AI self-improvement risks, considers a pause

In a blog post yesterday, AI giant Anthropic sounded the alarm on massive societal risks from recursive self-improvement, and urged companies to consider slowing down or pausing development.

In March 2023, the Future of Life Institute made headlines around the world when they published an open letter calling for a similar pause in giant AI experiments, signed by giants like Elon Musk and Yoshua Bengio. It was not heeded. The letter explained what was at stake:

“Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?”

“We are approaching a runaway to superintelligence that could threaten our shared human future. Both publicly and privately, AI companies are recognizing that a pause or slowdown in certain developmental pathways is crucial to protect lives and livelihoods everywhere. This should give everyone hope, and we stand ready to work with anyone who agrees.”

This content was first published at futureoflife.org on June 8, 2026.

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is the world’s oldest and largest AI think tank, with a team of 35+ full-time staff operating across the US and Europe. FLI has been working to steer the development of transformative technologies towards benefitting life and away from extreme large-scale risks since its founding in 2014. Find out more about our mission or explore our work.