Nick Edser
Business reporter

Image source, Getty Images

AI-related stocks have been on a roll for a while but concerns that the technology is becoming too powerful are now hitting the sector, suggests Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

"It looks like AI's strengths could backfire," he said. "There are growing fears that AI is advancing at an extraordinary pace and there need to be greater safeguards and controls in place."

The huge wave of investment seen in AI and AI-related companies over the past few years has come with the expectation that the sector will continue to grow and be profitable.

But some have argued that the valuations of AI companies have got out of hand, raising the prospect of a repeat of the dotcom boom and bust that was seen among early internet-based firms in the late 1990s.

Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, warns any disruption to expectations over AI profitability could lead to a "wide correction" - that is, a big fall - in the values of the companies.

Cunliffe told the BBC’s Today programme that past technological revolutions - such as canals, railways, electrification - which boosted the economy in the long run were "also accompanied by investment booms, and not all of the investment was justified by the future returns, and that's the possibility here".

Liv McMahon
Technology reporter

In recent weeks, AI researchers have warned of worrying signs of systems developing in their capabilities and power too quickly.

It’s something we’ve heard many times over the past few years.

Such worries date back decades, with Alan Turing writing in the 1950s that should intelligent machines become possible, their takeover might become inevitable.

The concern is that in the last few years, a handful of AI companies have been racing to develop increasingly capable systems - both for profit and in pursuit of creating what they call superintelligence, or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

Unlike the systems and tools many people use every day to complete tasks like writing emails or generating videos, it is believed superintelligent AI systems could handle a range of complex tasks, supplanting many humans.

OpenAI and Anthropic say they aim to advance this tech in a way that benefits humans and protect them from its existential risks.

But some critics believe machines can never truly match humans and frontier AI firms exaggerate the tech's abilities to boost their prominence and profit.

Image source, Science Photo Library

Discussions around the development of artificial intelligence - and concerns that it could pose a risk to society - are not new.

But comments made by a former employee of Anthropic - the AI firm behind Claude - last week have catalysed the conversation.

Here's how it has played out so far:

Last Wednesday, former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon wrote on social media that he had quit the company, and accused both Anthropic and OpenAI - where he previously worked - of ignoring the dangers posed by AI.

“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade," he wrote. "No other human activity poses this level of danger."

On Saturday, the CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei published an essay on "why the AI industry should slow down", with a three-part plan for doing so.

He added: "I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong."

His argument has been backed over the weekend by other heavyweights in the AI sector, including OpenAI head Sam Altman and Elon Musk - who developed the Grok generative AI under his SpaceX company.

On Monday, tech stocks fell following the calls from industry bosses to slow down the pace of AI development.

Image source, Reuters

The head of Anthropic has called for the pace of development of AI models to slow down and to be closely monitored amid growing concerns over the technology's potential risks.

Dario Amodei wrote in an online essay that developing AI was not in question, but that the risks associated with it were "serious" and that companies and governments must be given time to address them.

In the essay, titled We Must Pace the Frontier, Amodei proposed a three-point plan that included independent monitoring of AI models as they are developed, industry-wide regulation and global regulation.

Sam Altman, the CEO of rival firm OpenAI, sounded similar safety concerns in an interview over the weekend, telling Fortune magazine that standards were "not at a place" to push AI capabilities much further.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, who founded Grok producer xAI, said the Anthropic boss was "right".

There have been renewed concerns over the speed at which AI models are being developed after an AI researcher, who previously worked at OpenAI, resigned from his job at Anthropic, claiming "neither company is acting responsibly".

Nick Edser
Business reporter

Image source, VCG via Getty Images

Shares in companies linked to artificial intelligence (AI) have seen sharp falls on Monday following calls by AI bosses for a slowdown in the development of the technology.

Overnight in South Korea, shares in chipmaker SK Hynix fell 6.4% while Samsung Electronics dropped 4.1%. Japan's Softbank, which is a major investor in OpenAI, plunged more than 10%.

Stocks in Europe followed the trend. Germany's Infineon, which designs and manufactures semiconductors, was down 7.6%, while Dutch chip giant ASML fell 5.2%.

All eyes will be on the US market when it starts trading later. Early indications suggest that the Nasdaq index - which is dominated by tech firms - is set to open down by about 1.8%.

We'll bring you more on the ongoing debate on artificial intelligence, its impact on global markets and our experts will be answering your questions from 12:30 BST.