Venture capitalist and PayPal Holdings Inc. co-founder Peter Thiel said effective altruists were right to recognize AI’s potential to transform society and create new risks, despite his broader criticism of the movement.
Thiel on Effective Altruism
On Wednesday, Thiel discussed effective altruism with Walter Isaacson on the forthcoming podcast "The Builders," saying the movement identified the significance of AI before it became mainstream.
He compared effective altruism to a cult but said its followers had identified something that others had missed.
"It had maybe the good dimension of a cult, where there was one big thing they knew that the other people did not," Thiel said.
He said effective altruists maintained their belief in AI’s potential during an "AI desert," when the technology was frequently overpromised but had yet to deliver on many expectations.
AI Risks and Anthropic
According to Thiel, the movement correctly anticipated that AI would become an "enormously socially transformative thing" and warned that "it could be weaponized."
He also pointed to Anthropic, whose co-founders Dario and Daniela Amodei have histories with effective altruism, as an example of the movement’s influence on the AI industry. "A billion-dollar company seems bigger than a crazed cult could build," Thiel said.
He stressed that he was not endorsing effective altruism, saying he was trying to "steel-man" the movement by identifying the major idea it got right.
When Isaacson asked him to identify that idea, Thiel responded: "AI."
"AI is around the corner," he added.
AI Risks And Concerns
Earlier this week, Galaxy Digital Inc. (NASDAQ:GLXY) CEO Mike Novogratz warned that the public was increasingly concerned about AI’s impact on jobs and the future.
He said AI developers did not fully understand powerful models and urged greater safeguards.
"The Big Short" investor Michael Burry warned that AI-generated training data could amplify errors and accelerate "model collapse."
He also questioned whether large language models could achieve artificial general intelligence.
Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi warned that AI could accelerate cyberattacks faster than human security teams could respond.
He said the immediate existential risk remained low but urged companies to automate security operations with AI agents.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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