VC Bill Gurley warns Anthropic is 'midwifing a deity' by 'building a species that's superior to humans'

Prominent Silicon Valley investor Bill Gurley has raised alarms over Anthropic's ambitions in artificial intelligence, suggesting the company is not merely developing software but actively working to create a superior intelligence that could reshape humanity's future.

Gurley, a general partner at Benchmark Capital, shared his provocative views during a recent episode of the "All-In Podcast." After spending weeks immersed in research on the AI startup, he articulated a theory more disturbing to him than common criticisms of regulatory maneuvering.

"I don't think they think they're writing software. I think they're midwifing a deity here," Gurley stated. He described this as his "Dr. Frankenstein theory," expressing greater fear over it than Anthropic's advocacy for strict AI safety rules, which some view as an effort to sideline competitors.

Gurley pointed to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's October 2024 essay, "Machines of Loving Grace," as a key influence. In the piece, Amodei envisions scenarios where powerful AI systems fundamentally transform the economy, including possibilities of resource distribution guided by AI judgment.

"He says, 'It could be a capitalist economy of AI systems which then give out resources to humans based on some secondary economy of what the AI systems think makes sense to reward in humans.' So that's envisioning a deity of sorts that's going to break ties and decide what humans do," Gurley explained, drawing directly from the essay.

The venture capitalist's comments reflect broader unease about the trajectory of artificial general intelligence at leading labs. Anthropic has not publicly endorsed building an AI "deity," and a company representative declined to comment on Gurley's remarks.