After the initial ‘employment apocalypse’ and the subsequent ‘universal abundance’ discussions regarding what artificial intelligence (AI) will bring, the latest pivot was toward warnings that the technology could bring about the extinction of humans.
One prominent investor, however, appears relatively unmoved by the debate kickstarted by the resignation announcement of Jacob Coxon and has even described the frenzy as something of a smoke-and-mirrors strategy.
Specifically, the legendary ‘Big Short’ trader Michael Burry revealed the four reasons why he isn’t buying the narrative in an X post published late on Sunday, September 13.
Why Michael Burry does not believe the AI extinction narrative
According to the famous investor, large language models (LLMs) – the dominant form of contemporary generative AI – ‘are not AI and won’t be AGI.’ Thus, he concluded, ‘there is nothing AI to slow down.’
Michael Burry then pivoted to what appears to be the centerpiece of his thesis: the recent upsurge in competition from open-source and Chinese models has reduced the ‘incumbency’ advantage OpenAI and Anthropic have been enjoying for years.
This, per the ‘Big Short’ trader’s post, represents a risk for the initial public offering (IPO) plans of the two most prominent AI companies, and the latest apocalyptic narrative is therefore meeting the need for ‘hype & puffery.’
Finally, Burry opined that there is a ‘real uncontrollable slowing growth’ suffered by artificial intelligence firms, and the recent warnings regarding possible extinction, paired with subsequent calls to slow down AI development, are designed to obscure the industry’s struggles.
Notably, while Anthropic appears to still be committed to a 2026 IPO, including with its latest claim that it will enjoy at least two consecutive profitable quarters this year, OpenAI’s Sam Altman appears to have postponed his company’s going public at least to 2027.
AI extinction risk warnings meet mixed high-level reactions
Meanwhile, other reactions to the warnings about AI leading to humanity’s extinction in the relatively near future have been mixed.
Elon Musk reiterated that he has been warning about the dangers of the technology for more than a decade, but appears to have taken no steps to slow down development.
Anthropic and OpenAI also both appear to agree that more must be done to prevent potential catastrophic outcomes but also appear reluctant to be the first to pull the brakes.
President Donald Trump, for his part, publicly dismissed the danger, and China, per a September 13 Global Times article, is likewise hostile to the idea of slowing down.