Artificial intelligence stocks fell sharply in early Asian trading on Monday after executives at companies developing cutting-edge artificial intelligence models warned the pace of development must slow to prevent threats to humanity.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called on artificial intelligence companies to slow down the pace of development of model capabilities amid growing concerns about the misuse of artificial intelligence. Both Elon Musk, who runs xAI, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said they agreed with Amodei.
Altman later said OpenAI would not pursue an IPO this year, citing security concerns.
Shares of OpenAI investor SoftBank fell 13.2% in early trading in Japan, along with initial falls of 9.8% for memory chip maker Kioxia and 3.7% for chip supply chain company Tokyo Electron.
In Taipei, shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fell 1.2%, in South Korea shares of SK Hynix fell 5.3% and shares of Samsung Electronics fell 3.7%.
“Selling pressure is likely to hit AI and semiconductor stocks in Tokyo after a series of comments over the weekend calling for a slowdown in AI development,” Takayuki Miyajima, senior economist at Sony Financial Group, said in a note.
“Additionally, uncertainty surrounding the situation in the Middle East continues to weigh on sentiment.”
In Shanghai, shares of memory chip maker CXMT fell 2.7%, while shares of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation fell 1.4%.
In Hong Kong, shares of Zhongji Innolight lost 4.1% and shares of Minimax fell 5.4%. Shares of Z.ai, developer of the GLM AI series, also fell 10.5% after a discounted share offering.
San Francisco-based Anthropic released a threat report Thursday detailing how multiple actors have used its Claude artificial intelligence models for activities ranging from weapons development and cyber operations to surveillance and fraud.
Concerns about the potential harm from AI grew this week when anthropology researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, saying that “the people who create AI truly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
OpenAI’s Altman said in an interview that the risks of human extinction posed by AI are “unacceptable.”
And while several US lawmakers have expressed concerns about AI’s rapid progress and called for new rules, US President Donald Trump on Sunday likened AI critics to “very negative forces”, raising scenarios that won’t happen, and said he wants to make sure the US remains a leader in the industry.
AI-related deals have driven much of the rise in global equities since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, but cyberattacks from rogue AI agents and public anger over data center construction have fueled resistance to industry growth recently.
The U.S. and Chinese governments are expected to hold talks on AI safety as part of bilateral discussions this month, according to two people briefed on the plans.