Strange New Ad By Anthropic Implies That AI Might End Us All, But... [Watch]

American AI company, Anthropic, is one of the leaders in the artificial intelligence movement (and one of the most valuable). And they have just released ad advert that is, to say the least, ominous. This is despite putting on its most concerned face so it can convince you they're the good guys in the industry.

The commercial was released last week, and it took an unorthodox approach to promoting its technology. Instead of going the expected optimism route, it starts with a series of bleak images as we hear voiceovers from different speakers ask some really hard-hitting questions about AI. In fact, you might at first think that you are actually watching a PSA.

It starts with a house on fire, then someone asks, "Can AI be trusted?" as footage that looks like surveillance with an AI algorithm scanning the faces of everyone in a crowd appears.

Right after this is the most striking sequence. Another voice says, "Who's going to hit the brakes if we need to?" as it cuts to footage of a cemetery lined with hundreds of headstones. Way to sell your product Anthropic.

In the eyes of Anthropic, this is a feel-good story. The tagline for the ad is, "There's hope in hard questions," which is meant to reassure viewers that that their concerns over AI - like its potential to destroy jobs or erode or ability to think - are all perfectly valid and that they are questions that the minds behind the company are grappling with as well.

It didn't take long for the commercial, which aired during the World Cup quarterfinal clash between Argentina and Switzerland over the weekend, to draw criticism online. One person commented, "When we raise the question of stopping a dangerously powerful superintelligence we show 300 American gravestones for half a second". Even Sam Altman chimed in, saying, "I thought this was satire".

A key part of the ethos of Anthropic is that they want to focus on safe AI development. Recently, the company even called for a global "pause" on AI development because it feared the technology could spiral out of human control.

One person responding to the ad said it best: "Can Anthropic be trusted?" And that's the real hard question.