POLICY · REGULATION · #890
Pope adviser Paolo Benanti warns of ‘cartel’ behavior among major AI labs
Paolo Benanti, a priest who advises the Catholic Church on technology, told WIRED that focusing on speculative superintelligence risks distracting from the need for democratic oversight of AI companies; he warned that frontier labs shaping rules for the industry can act like a cartel and exclude public debate. The piece references recent safety calls from figures like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and notes the Pope’s recent encyclical on AI as part of a broader push for international and ethical constraints on AI development.
KEY POINTS
- Paolo Benanti, a priest who advises the Catholic Church on technology, told WIRED that focusing on speculative superintelligence risks distracting from the need for democratic oversight of AI companies; he warned that frontier labs shaping rules for the industry can act like a cartel and exclude public debate.
- The piece references recent safety calls from figures like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and notes the Pope’s recent encyclical on AI as part of a broader push for international and ethical constraints on AI development.
- Highlights a prominent ethical and governance critique that the biggest AI developers may be setting rules for the industry in ways that shut out democratic oversight.
WHY IT MATTERS
Highlights a prominent ethical and governance critique that the biggest AI developers may be setting rules for the industry in ways that shut out democratic oversight.