Anthropic's Dario Amodei gets the SNL treatment

"Saturday Night Live" turned its comedic lens on the AI industry's recent doom-laden rhetoric this past weekend, dedicating a sketch to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

Weekend Update host Michael Che introduced the segment by describing Amodei as having stumbled through a recent press tour, during which he appeared to agree with a former employee's claim that artificial intelligence could destroy humanity.

Cast member Jane Wickline, wearing an elaborate wig, played Amodei delivering halting, uncertain answers that occasionally spiraled into Gollum-style exchanges with her own dark side. At one point, the character confessed, "AI is the devil and I its maker."

The fictional Amodei reassured audiences that AI executives are "all on the same page here: We do not condone what we are doing." She went on to describe AI as "not a weapon, it's a tool: A tool for building weapons," urging viewers to "urge me to stop."

When addressing the technology's potential upsides, such as curing cancer, the character offered a sardonic assessment, suggesting there was roughly a 10% chance cancer would no longer be a problem for anyone within a decade.

The sketch reflects growing public attention to the contradictory messaging coming from AI industry leaders, who have increasingly warned about the risks of the technology they are building while simultaneously racing to develop and market it.