Why Is Anthropic’s Jack Clark Calling for a Mandatory AI ‘Kill Switch’?
Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark has told the BBC that a third-party-verifiable AI 'kill switch' may need to be made mandatory for companies, warning that leaving the industry unregulated means 'we are rolling dice with immense risks,' as the debate over AI extinction risk intensifies ahead of Anthropic's IPO.
Jack Clark, one of the seven co-founders of Anthropic, has said that a mandatory, third-party-verifiable "kill switch" for artificial intelligence systems could soon become a policy requirement, as debate intensifies over the risks posed by rapidly advancing AI technology. Speaking to the BBC, Clark said most AI labs, including Anthropic, already have some internal mechanism to shut down their software, but suggested lawmakers may eventually need to formalise and verify such safeguards across the industry. His comments come days after Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called for AI development to slow down and face closer monitoring, even as the company pushes ahead with an initial public offering valued at USD 965 billion.
What Jack Clark Said
Clark said the question of whether a kill switch should be mandated, and whether it should be verifiable by an outside party, is part of a larger policy conversation society will need to have around AI regulation.
He added, 'We are rolling dice with immense risks,' while stressing that leaving AI as a completely unregulated industry would be unwise. AI Could Go ‘Very Badly’ in 2 Ways, Sam Altman Warns: Here’s What They Are.
Clark declined to put a specific number on the odds of AI causing human extinction, saying such statistics were not particularly useful.
Extinction Risk Debate Escalates
The remarks follow a viral post from a former Anthropic researcher who quit the company over fears AI could wipe out humanity. In response, Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger reportedly estimated the chance of human extinction from AI at more than 10 percent within the next decade, a figure that Turing Award-winning computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton called not unreasonable.
Not everyone in the industry agrees. Hugging Face chief Clement Delangue dismissed the extinction warnings as overstated, while Grindr's George Arison argued that AI firms were amplifying doomsday fears to justify their massive valuations. Why Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Urges AI Industry To ‘Slow Down’.
US and UK Take Different Paths on Regulation
In the United States, lawmakers have introduced the Kill Switch Act, which would require AI companies to build in a shutdown mechanism and give certain government agencies power to demand a tool be limited or turned off.
US President Donald Trump has rejected calls to slow AI development, calling fears of an AI takeover a hoax and comparing them to past concerns over climate change.
The United Kingdom, meanwhile, has already ruled out mandating a kill switch, with the government saying such a measure would not stop dangerous AI models from being built or misused elsewhere in the world.
Anthropic's IPO Push
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees and is now valued at USD 965 billion as it prepares for a stock market listing. Rival OpenAI, valued at USD 852 billion, had also been expected to go public, but CEO Sam Altman said this would not happen this year given the ongoing safety debate.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 15, 2026 07:20 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
