Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei escalates war of words with Jensen Huang, calling out 'outrageous lie' and getting emotional about father's death

⏳ TL;DR

• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly confronts Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang over accusations of wanting to control AI, calling them an "outrageous lie"
• Amodei gets emotional discussing his father's death, which shaped his urgency around AI safety and benefits
• He argues he’s actually more optimistic than so-called 'accelerationists' like Huang and Altman, despite warning about AI risks
• Advocates for strong regulation, responsible scaling, and transparency—not open-source models—as the path forward

✍️ The Story

In a raw, emotionally charged moment on tech journalist Alex Kantrowitz’s podcast, Dario Amodei—CEO of AI safety-focused Anthropic—didn’t just defend his company’s mission. He laid bare the personal stakes behind his crusade for responsible AI.

It started with a jab: Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, had labeled Amodei a ‘doomer’ who wants to slow down progress. That hit hard. "I get very angry when people call me a doomer," Amodei said, voice cracking slightly. "That’s not who I am. That’s the most outrageous lie I’ve ever heard."

Why the reaction? Because for Amodei, this isn’t just policy—it’s personal. His father died in 2006 from an illness that saw its cure rate jump from 50% to 95% just a few years later. That shift—from hopelessness to breakthrough—taught him that technology can be life-saving. It also taught him that speed matters. "The urgency of solving the relevant problems," he said, "that’s what drives me."

So while others in Silicon Valley cheer AI as humanity’s next great leap, Amodei sees something else: a race against time. He believes AI will transform biology, climate, and economics—but only if we build it responsibly. "I’m one of the most bullish about AI capabilities improving very fast," he insists. But unlike the accelerationists, he doesn’t believe growth should come at any cost.

He’s pushing for a "race to the top"—where companies compete to make AI safer, not just faster. Anthropic was the first to publish a responsible scaling policy, and Amodei openly shares safety research like constitutional AI and interpretability work. To him, these aren’t trade secrets—they’re public goods.

Nvidia pushes back, calling Amodei’s regulatory stance a threat to innovation. "Lobbying for regulatory capture against open source will only stifle innovation," they say. But Amodei counters: "Open source is a red herring. These models are opaque. You can’t truly open-source something you don’t fully understand."

Amodei’s journey began long before today’s AI wars—he left OpenAI because he didn’t trust the leadership’s sincerity. "If you’re working for someone whose motivations are not sincere… it’s not going to work," he warned. Now, he’s building a different kind of AI future—one where ethics aren’t an afterthought but the foundation.

🔥 Why It Matters

• This isn’t just a CEO feud—it’s a philosophical battle between two visions of AI’s future: one driven by speed and profit, the other by responsibility and human dignity
• If regulators take Amodei’s warnings seriously, it could reshape how AI is developed globally, especially in areas like national security and economic disruption
• His personal story adds emotional weight to the debate, reminding us that behind every tech policy is a human story

🔗 How It Connects

• For context: Anthropic’s Responsible Scaling Policy
• Related: Nvidia’s response to AI regulation concerns
• Background: Sam Altman’s OpenAI firing and return