Dario Amodei’s ‘SNL’ treatment cements him as the face of AI doomerism

Dario Amodei is having a moment. The 43-year-old CEO of Anthropic has been making headlines for weeks after repeatedly advocating for greater regulation and a slower pace of AI development—despite the fact that his company is one of the largest AI developers in the world. This weekend, that discourse exploded even further in the cultural zeitgeist. On Thursday, Axios circulated a White House memo designed to push back on Amodei’s AI safety warnings ahead of the midterm elections; on Saturday, SNL parodied Amodei in a searing “Weekend Update” impression; and, by Sunday night, Amodei was sitting down to dinner with the president. The Saturday Night Live impression is a good reference point for what Amodei has become in pop culture: an AI CEO warning the public about AI while also actively pushing the technology forward. In the bit, Amodei (played by cast member Jane Wickline) battles his own internal dialogue in a Gollum-vs.-Sméagol-style repartee, fighting to find something reassuring to say about artificial intelligence while simultaneously saying all of the most alarming statements possible. “AI is the devil, and I its maker,” Wickline’s Amodei lets slip a minute into the sketch.…