Meet the top Anthropic scientist who predicted the core of today’s AI doom debate

Jared Kaplan, Anthropic's chief science officer. Bloomberg/Getty Images Anthropic cofounder Jared Kaplan foresaw the debate about AI's danger hinging on self-improving AI. Kaplan leads research and responsible scaling at Anthropic, playing a pivotal role in the AI race. His former collaborators describe him as sharp and sensible, and they say his concerns are real. At the center of the debate over AI-driven catastrophe , there's Anthropic. At the center of Anthropic, there's Jared Kaplan. The Anthropic cofounder sounded the alarm on AI late last year: No one knows what will happen if frontier developers get AI to the point where it fully trains itself. He told the Guardian that letting AI train itself could lead to an "intelligence explosion," but it's also the "ultimate risk" and "maybe the biggest decision or scariest thing to do." The decision point for that process, he said, could arrive between 2027 and 2030.