AI stocks slide after major CEOs unite to urge slowdown

Global AI-related stocks fell on Monday after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown of the development of AI capabilities, with other major tech figures backing the proposal.

In Asia, South Korean heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics closed down more than 6% and 4%, respectively. Shares of SoftBank, one of the biggest investors in OpenAI, fell 10% in Japan.

In Europe, semiconductor and other AI-related stocks also fell sharply in early trading. Chip equipment giant ASML fell more than 4%, Nokia was down around 5% and Infineon dropped more than 6%. Other companies with business ties to the buildout of data centers, such as Siemens Energy and Schneider Electric, were also lower.

The sell-off comes amid the growing debate over the risks posed by rapidly improving AI model capabilities that hit a crescendo last week after Jacob Coxon, a researcher at Anthropic who also previously worked at OpenAI, said he resigned out of concern that Anthropic and OpenAI are "gambling with our lives." 

That led to Anthropic safety researcher Evan Hubinger responding, saying he believes that there is a greater than 10% chance AI will "kill all humans" within the next decade.

The posts caused a firestorm on social media and led to a response from major AI leaders. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday penned an essay calling for a slowdown in the pace of development of AI capabilities.

"We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," Amodei said.

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