ChatGPT, Claude, Grok — artificial intelligence tools are rapidly expanding across the U.S., with new features and platforms being introduced constantly. While some have embraced it, others remain skeptical, and even nervous, about the future of the technology.
Now, industry leaders are speaking out, saying companies need to slow their pace of development. But the artificial intelligence itself also has an opinion.
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AI leaders urge caution
It all started last week when Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned after warning that AI labs are pursuing systems developers may eventually be unable to control.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei seemingly replied to the comments in an essay Saturday. He warned AI carries serious risks, so “we must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.”
After he published the essay, two of Amodei’s biggest rivals quickly agreed.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company plans to use independent safety evaluators, while Elon Musk said, “Dario is right.”
Politicians weigh in
Since then, politicians have weighed in as well.
President Donald Trump disagrees that there’s a need to slow down.
“Well, I say this: we’re leading China in AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world,” Trump said Sunday. “And frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins. And we can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up, and they are bringing up things that won’t happen.”
On the other end of the spectrum of opinion, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called the industry leaders’ comments “a start” but added, “When you are racing towards a cliff, you don’t just ease up on the gas pedal. You hit the brakes.”
He added, “When the future of humanity is at stake we need a PAUSE on advanced AI development and a ban on artificial superintelligence — an AI mind smarter than any human and capable of operating independently beyond our control.”
But what does AI itself think?
But in all the talk and debate, has anyone asked the frontman? As in, AI itself? Well, we did.
We plugged the same prompt, “Do you think AI development has gone too far?” into five artificial intelligence systems: ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini and Copilot.
The answers we got? Well, they vary.
AI’s own opinion
Let’s start with ChatGPT, created by Sam Altman and OpenAI. When asked, the chatbot said, “Honestly? In some ways, yes — but I don’t think AI development itself has gone too far. I think parts of the way we’re developing and deploying it have.”
It went on to express similar concerns to Altman, saying, “My biggest concern isn’t ‘AI is getting too smart.’ It’s ‘we’re putting increasingly powerful systems into the world faster than we’re figuring out how to responsibly use them.’”
It went on to list six things that “worry” it:
- The incentive structure.
- Jobs and human expertise.
- Information.
- Power concentration.
- Autonomy.
- The human tendency to anthropomorphize AI.
Then it summed its thoughts up with this: “I’m much more worried about humans using increasingly powerful AI irresponsibly than I am about AI spontaneously deciding it wants to destroy humanity.”
And in another chat with the same prompt, it caught on to the irony.
“You’re literally talking to an AI about whether AI has gone too far. 😂 So I’m probably not the most unbiased witness in the courtroom.”
We also asked Copilot, which is a Microsoft product.
It said there’s no “simple yes or no answer,” adding, “My view is that AI development itself has not gone too far, but some uses of AI can go too far if they’re not guided by strong safeguards, transparency, and human oversight.”
It listed both positives and negatives of the technology and shared beliefs that “reasonable people” have.
Research-focused approaches
Of all the AI tools we tested this on, ChatGPT and Copilot were the only ones to give their own “opinion.” Every other tool took a more research-focused approach.
Both Claude and Gemini said AI development and whether it’s gone “too far” is an active debate, and pulled arguments from those who think it has gone too far and those who think it hasn’t.
“Whether AI development has ‘gone too far’ is one of the most intense and active debates globally,” Gemini replied. “There is no single consensus, but rather a sharp divide between different perspectives.”
Claude said essentially the same thing, in fewer words: “That’s a live debate, and thoughtful people land in pretty different places on it.”
Both then went and broke down arguments from both sides of the debate.
Meanwhile, Grok, created by Musk, said there’s no definitive answer because of this journalist’s phrasing of the question.
“No single definitive answer exists, because ‘too far’ is a value judgment that depends on what risks, benefits, and trade-offs one prioritizes,” Grok said.
However, it went on to state opinions from both sides of the debate, similar to Claude and Gemini. It said alignment and control problems are unsolved, societal disruption exists, but the potential upside is “enormous.”
“The most coherent position consistent with evidence is neither unqualified acceleration nor blanket pause,” Grok said.
So what should the future of AI development look like? Like humans, not even the AI itself agrees.
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