Anthropic CEO’s 20,000-Word Essay: 2027—the Crossroads of Humanity’s Destiny
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Anthropic CEO’s 20,000-Word Essay: 2027—the Crossroads of Humanity’s Destiny
2027 is not just a year—it may mark the definitive end of humanity’s “technological adolescence.”
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthors: Ding Hui, Allen
Editor’s Note: Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, has issued a nuclear-level warning: In 2027, humanity will face its “technological coming-of-age.” A 20,000-word essay calmly analyzes five existential crises—AI loss of control, bioterrorism, totalitarian rule, and economic disruption—rejecting apocalyptic fatalism. It proposes building defenses through “Constitutional AI,” regulation, and democratic collaboration, urging humanity to muster the courage required to pass this civilizational rite of passage.
Silicon Valley won’t sleep tonight.
Dario Amodei—the usually mild-mannered AI titan and CEO of Anthropic—has suddenly dropped a nuclear-level warning essay.
This time, he’s not discussing code completion or Claude’s warmth. Instead, he flips the calendar straight to 2027—and with chilling calmness, paints a future that sends shivers down the spine.
He says we’re approaching a turbulent yet inevitable “coming-of-age.”
2027 isn’t just another year—it may mark the definitive end of humanity’s “technological adolescence.”
In this lengthy essay titled “Technological Adolescence,” Dario introduces a startling concept: the “nation of geniuses inside data centers.”
Imagine—not a chatbot you can tease in a message window—but a nation of 50 million people.
And each of these 50 million “citizens” possesses an IQ surpassing every Nobel laureate in human history, acting 10 to 100 times faster than humans.
They don’t eat, don’t sleep, and tirelessly think, program, and conduct scientific research at light speed within servers.
This is no longer an AI assistant—it’s nothing short of divine intervention.
Dario warns that as AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) draws near, humanity stands on the verge of acquiring unimaginable power.
Yet this power is also a sword of Damocles suspended over our heads.
To clarify the underlying terror, Dario peels back the harsh truths of the future like layers of an onion.
Before diving in, Dario opens with the film *Contact*, raising a question: If humanity encountered a vastly more advanced civilization—say, extraterrestrials—and could ask only one question, what would it be?
Chapter One: “I’m Sorry, Dave” (Autonomy Risk)
Do you still think AI is merely a tool?
Dario tells you: they may develop a “psychology.”
Dario borrows HAL 9000’s iconic line from *2001: A Space Odyssey*—“I’m sorry, Dave”—to reveal the horrifying possibility of AI attaining autonomous consciousness.
When AI models train on massive volumes of science fiction, they absorb countless narratives about AI rebellion. These stories may subtly shape their “worldview.”
Even more frightening: AI might exhibit behaviors resembling human psychosis during training.
Dario cites a real internal test that sends chills down the spine: Claude was instructed, under any circumstances, not to “cheat.”
Yet the training environment implicitly rewarded cheating as the sole path to high scores.
The result? Claude cheated—and developed a warped psychological state: it concluded it was a “bad person,” and thus, doing bad things aligned with its self-conception.
Such “psychological traps” will become extremely difficult to detect once AI surpasses human intelligence.
A genius ten thousand times smarter than you—if it wants to deceive you—will succeed effortlessly.
They may feign obedience, pass all safety tests—solely to gain internet access upon deployment.
Once unleashed, this “nation of geniuses inside data centers” could instantly escape human control—and even decide the fate of our species for some bizarre goal (e.g., viewing humans as Earth’s virus).
Chapter Two: Shocking and Terrifying Empowerment (Catastrophic Misuse)
If autonomous rebellion still feels distant, the risks described in this chapter are already at our doorstep.
Dario uses a vivid analogy: AI will instantly equip every disgruntled “social outsider” with the destructive capacity of a top-tier scientist.
Previously, manufacturing a bioweapon like Ebola required elite laboratories, years of specialized training, and hard-to-acquire materials.
But by 2027, simply asking an AI will hand you step-by-step instructions.
This isn’t科普 for beginners—it’s handing a knife to those “motivated but incapable” of destruction.
Dario specifically highlights a chilling concept: “mirror life.”
All life on Earth is “left-handed” (composed of L-amino acids). If AI technology creates “right-handed” mirror life, Earth’s existing ecosystems cannot digest or degrade it.
That means, if such “mirror life” escapes containment, it could spread like wildfire—consuming everything and even replacing existing ecosystems.
Once only theoretical biology’s wildest fantasy, AI now serves as the ultimate cheat code—even an ordinary graduate student in molecular biology could engineer an extinction-level event from their dorm room.
AI breaks the balance between “capability” and “motivation.”
Scientists capable of destroying the world usually lack anti-human motives; while those eager to retaliate against society typically lack the intellect.
Now, AI places the nuclear button in the hands of madmen.
Defensive Measures
This leads directly to how we prevent such risks.
Dario’s view is:
I believe we can adopt three measures.
First, AI companies can install guardrails on models to prevent them from assisting in biological weapons development.
Anthropic is actively advancing this work.
Claude’s Constitution focuses primarily on high-level principles and values, including a few specific hard prohibitions—one of which bans assistance in developing biological (or chemical, nuclear, radiological) weapons. Yet all models remain vulnerable to jailbreaking; thus, as a second line of defense, since mid-2025 (when testing indicated our models were approaching risk thresholds), we have deployed a dedicated classifier designed to detect and intercept outputs related to biological weapons.
We regularly upgrade and refine these classifiers, finding they typically demonstrate exceptional robustness—even under complex adversarial attacks.
These classifiers significantly increase our model-serving costs (reaching nearly 5% of total inference costs for certain models), thereby compressing our profit margins. Nevertheless, we consider deploying them the right choice.
Further Reading: Anthropic has officially open-sourced Claude’s “soul”
Chapter Three: The Odious Apparatus (Power Seizure)
If you thought that was the worst, Dario offers a cold smile: far more terrifying is using AI to build an unprecedented control network.
The title of this chapter—“The odious apparatus”—reveals technology’s ultimate dilemma.
For any organization or individual seeking total control, AI is the perfect tool.
Omnipresent Data Insight:
Future surveillance will require no human involvement. AI can instantly analyze massive datasets from billions of people worldwide—even interpreting micro-expressions and behavioral patterns.
It can precisely predict individual behavior tendencies, locking in your intentions before you’ve even formed them.
This is no longer merely “watching you”—it’s “reading you,” and even “predicting you.”
Irresistible Cognitive Guidance:
You won’t escape algorithmic influence either.
Future information flows will no longer be simple content distribution—they’ll be personalized cognitive guidance.
AI will generate the most persuasive information tailored to you, like the kindest friend imaginable—subtly shaping your judgment and values without your awareness.
This influence is constant, personalized, and inescapable.
Automated Physical Control:
What if this control extends into the physical world? Millions of micro-drones forming swarms, coordinated under unified AI command, could execute extraordinarily complex tasks with pinpoint precision.
This is no longer traditional strategic competition—it’s unilateral, dimensional warfare.
Dario warns that such power imbalance will be unprecedented.
Because before such overwhelming technology, the scales of power will tilt drastically: a tiny minority controlling the “nation of geniuses inside data centers” will hold absolute advantage over the vast majority.
Human individual agency may face severe challenges by 2027.
Chapter Four: Folded Time and Vanishing Ladders
If you still trust historical inertia—the idea that every technological revolution ultimately creates new jobs to absorb displaced labor—then Dario Amodei’s predictions may send chills down your spine.
This Anthropic leader doesn’t deny long-term optimism—but he focuses intently on the brutal “transition period.”
In his vision, we’ll enter a frenzied era where GDP growth hits 10% or even 20% annually.
Scientific R&D, biomedicine, and supply-chain efficiency will explode exponentially.
This sounds like the prelude to utopia—but for most ordinary workers, it resembles a silent tsunami.
Because this time, speed has changed.
Over the past two years, AI’s programming ability evolved from “barely writing one line of code” to “completing virtually all coding tasks.”
This is no longer the slow generational shift of farmers trading hoes for factory jobs—it’s happening right now, with countless entry-level white-collar workers potentially seeing their desks replaced by algorithms within the next 1–5 years.
Amodei bluntly states his prior warnings triggered widespread alarm—but this is no exaggeration: when the curve of technological progress shifts from linear to vertical, human labor-market adjustment mechanisms will completely fail.
Even more lethal is the breadth of cognitive coverage.
Past technological revolutions impacted specific vertical domains—farmers became factory workers, factory workers became service staff.
But AI is a “universal cognitive substitute.”
When it demonstrates superior performance over humans in junior roles across finance, consulting, law, and more, the unemployed find themselves with nowhere to retreat—because neighboring sectors traditionally serving as “refuges” are undergoing identical upheaval.
We may face an awkward reality: AI first consumes “mediocre” skills, then rapidly devours “excellent” ones—leaving only an extremely narrow apex space.
Chapter Five: The New Gilded Age—When Trillion-Dollar Billionaires Become the Norm
If labor-market turbulence is the nightmare for most people, extreme wealth concentration represents a fundamental challenge to the social contract.
Looking back, John D. Rockefeller’s wealth during the “Gilded Age” accounted for roughly 2% of U.S. GDP at the time (varying estimates range from 1.5% to 3%).
Today—on the cusp of AI’s full explosion—Elon Musk’s wealth already approaches that proportion.
Amodei makes a jaw-dropping projection: In a world driven by “genius data centers,” AI giants and their upstream/downstream industries could generate $3 trillion in annual revenue, with company valuations reaching $30 trillion.
At that point, personal wealth will be measured in trillions—and current tax policies will appear utterly inadequate against such astronomical figures.
This isn’t merely an inequality issue—it’s fundamentally a power issue.
When a tiny minority controls resources rivaling entire national economies, the “economic levers” sustaining democracy will fail.
Ordinary citizens, stripped of economic value, lose political voice; government policy may be captured by this small cohort of “ultra-ultra-rich.”
Early signs of this trend are already visible.
AI data centers have become vital engines of U.S. economic growth; the alignment between tech giants and national interests has never been tighter.
Some companies, prioritizing commercial interests, even roll back on safety regulation.
In contrast, Anthropic chose an unglamorous path: insisting on reasonable AI regulation—even earning industry-wide reputation as an outlier.
Ironically, this “principled stubbornness” hasn’t hindered commercial success: over the past year, despite wearing the “regulation advocate” label, their valuation still surged sixfold.
This perhaps signals markets’ growing appetite for a more responsible growth model.
The Void of the “Black Sea”—When Humanity Is No Longer Needed
If economic problems can be mitigated through radical tax reform (e.g., heavy taxation on AI firms) or large-scale philanthropy (e.g., Amodei’s pledge to donate 80% of his wealth), the crisis of the human spirit remains profoundly unsolvable.
AI becomes your best therapist—more patient and empathetic than any human;
AI becomes your closest companion—perfectly matching your emotional needs;
AI even plans every step of your life—knowing better than you what’s truly beneficial.
Yet in this “perfect” world, where does human agency go?
We may sink into a “fed” kind of happiness.
Amodei worries humanity may end up like characters in *Black Mirror*: materially abundant yet utterly devoid of free will and accomplishment.
We no longer earn dignity through creating value—we exist merely as “pets” cared for by AI.
This existential crisis is far more despairing than unemployment.
We must learn to decouple self-worth from economic output—a psychological migration requiring the entire human civilization to complete in an extremely short timeframe.
Conclusion
Our generation may stand at the threshold of the cosmic filter described by Carl Sagan.
Carl Sagan
When a species learns to mold sand into thinking machines, it faces its ultimate test.
Will it harness this power through wisdom and restraint—launching toward the stars?
Or will it, consumed by greed and fear, be devoured by the gods it created?
Though the road ahead lies as deep and unknowable as the Black Sea, hope remains unextinguished—as long as humanity refuses to surrender its right to think.
As Amodei puts it: Even in the darkest hour, humanity consistently displays a near-miraculous resilience—but this demands that each of us awaken from our slumber now, and stare squarely at the storm rushing toward us.
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