Michael Burry criticizes a "self-serving" slowdown in AI

As AI stocks have retreated and the American political scene pushes for acceleration, Michael Burry opposes calls to slow down advancements in AI. The investor deems these efforts self-serving, believes that current models do not threaten humanity, and links the risk discourse to the stock market enthusiasm surrounding IPOs.

Stock Market Retreat and Political Calls to Maintain Momentum

Investors sold off AI-related stocks on Monday, facing the prospect of slower growth. Nvidia fell by 3% in pre-market trading, while Intel, Micron, and SK Hynix dropped more than 5%. Meanwhile, strong pressure from Wall Street and Washington is pushing American AI giants to keep moving forward. President Trump stated this weekend that very negative forces are fueling apocalyptic rhetoric, that the worst will not happen, and that the United States must beat China in the AI race.

AI Leaders Advocate for a Slowdown, Supported by Warnings from Researchers

Dario Amodei has called on his peers to slow the pace of advancements so that risk prevention can catch up. Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Demis Hassabis have supported this call on X. Prior to this, Jacob Coxon, a former researcher at OpenAI and Anthropic, warned that these labs are rushing toward a self-improving superintelligence, putting lives at risk. Evan Hubinger, a researcher at Anthropic, believes that the probability of AI killing all humans exceeds 10% in the next decade. Leaders like Sam Altman and Dario Amodei are thus advocating for slower development following these alerts.

Burry Challenges Immediate Risk and Sees Calculations Around IPOs

Michael Burry argues that AI leaders calling for a slowdown are acting out of self-interest and that there is nothing to fear at this stage. In a message posted on Sunday on X, he described these pleas as "self-serving" and put forth several reasons: chatbots do not lead to AGI and there is nothing to slow down; a slowdown would benefit established players at the expense of smaller ones; presenting AI as an extinction threat fuels hype favorable to IPOs; and an intentional slowdown, he claims, serves as a cover for an uncontrollable slowdown in growth. In his newsletter, Cassandra Unchained, he asserts that leaders at Anthropic and OpenAI support this slowdown to enhance the perception of their power ahead of their IPOs. He adds that models like Claude and ChatGPT will not achieve true reasoning capabilities and reiterates that there is nothing to fear for now. Requests made to Anthropic and OpenAI did not elicit an immediate response. Throughout the year, Michael Burry has issued critiques and taken bearish positions on several AI companies, warning against excessive investments in infrastructure, aggressive accounting practices, the existence of hidden debts, and circular operations. For nearly a year, he has been publishing on Substack about his personal portfolio, having gained notoriety for his bet against the 2000s housing bubble.