Anthropic Is Racing Toward An IPO. Its Co-Founder Wants A Way To Slow AI Down, Says The Industry ‘Doesn’t Have A Brake Pedal’

As Anthropic races toward what could become one of the most closely watched IPOs this year after SpaceX, co-founder Jack Clark is warning that the artificial intelligence industry may need something it currently lacks: a brake pedal.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight this week on a series of topics, Clark said policymakers should have the ability to slow AI development if systems become too powerful or society needs time to absorb the consequences.

“You want the option to be able to take your foot off the gas and put your foot on the brake,” Clark said. “Right now, it’s like the AI industry has a gas pedal, but it doesn’t have a brake pedal.”

A Warning Amid The AI Boom

Clark’s comments come as investor enthusiasm for AI continues to fuel soaring valuations across the sector.

Anthropic, backed by Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet‘s Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG), has reportedly been exploring a public listing that could value the Claude maker at close to $1 trillion, placing it among the most valuable technology companies in the world despite being founded just five years ago.

The company’s rise has become one of the clearest symbols of the AI investment boom that has propelled Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and other AI-linked stocks to record highs while reigniting debate about whether markets are underestimating the risks associated with increasingly powerful AI systems.

Claude Is Already Writing Most Of Anthropic’s Code

Clark pointed to a striking example of how rapidly AI capabilities are advancing.

“So 80% of the code that goes into Anthropic now comes from Claude,” he said.

“The majority of the code in our organization is now written and derived from our AI systems itself.”

According to Clark, the shift has dramatically accelerated productivity and research inside the company, helping engineers produce roughly eight times more code than in previous years.

But… The Question Investors Are Starting To Ask

The prospect of AI systems increasingly contributing to their own development has become a central debate among both policymakers and investors.

When asked whether AI-generated code could eventually account for all of Anthropic’s software development, Clark said it was “plausible,” adding that such a scenario would have “huge implications.”

“It’s also a choice as to whether you let AI systems get that far,” he said.

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