New York (AFP) – The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the heated debate around its risks have made Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei the most prominent technology leader of the moment, although the 43-year-old executive remains an enigma.

First modification: 02/10/2026 - 20:38

"He is one of the great legends of technology and business," says Alex Karp, CEO of AI company Palantir.

A native of San Francisco, Amodei has built a company in just five years that could reach a valuation of $2 billion in its IPO, scheduled for this fall.

"He is probably one of the most recognized (AI) business leaders, along with Sam Altman and, in the field of traditional economics, figures like Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase) or Bernard Arnault (LVMH)," says Stephen Henriques, a researcher at Yale University.

With tousled hair, round glasses, an affable manner and a taste for V-neck sweaters, Amodei is light years away from the archetypal corporate executive.

He fascinates and irritates in equal measure the venture capital magnates, as well as President Donald Trump and his entourage, who cannot decipher his way of acting and are upset by what they consider to be catastrophic warnings about the dangers of AI for humanity.

Many still do not understand his decision to confront the Pentagon last March to prevent certain military and security uses of his AI, even at the risk of losing everything.

"Idealistic"

To some, Amodei is a humanist concerned about the impact of AI on society. For others, a skillful strategist willing to take advantage of the collective fears that this technology arouses for Anthropic's benefit.

"He was an idealist in the technical or scientific sense of the term," maintains Michael Berry, his thesis advisor at Princeton University in the late 2000s.

"I wanted to tackle big problems," he explains of this physics student who turned to biology for his doctorate. He was interested in "acquiring knowledge and tools that would allow him to cure diseases."

But not everyone remembers them that way.

"I've never seen anyone embark on a strong moral or ethical quest," says Olivier Marre, who worked with Amodei at Princeton on a retinal analysis device.

"Dario was ambitious, eager to succeed and be recognized, but not in an excessive or abnormal way," says Marre, current director of research at INSERM in France.

After Princeton, this swimming enthusiast did a postdoctoral degree at Stanford focused on protein analysis, just as AI was making important advances.

"The decisive moment came when he became interested in both AI and 'Effective Altruism' (EA)," says a witness to this evolution who prefers to remain anonymous.

"Before that," he adds, "he could well have dedicated himself to less original things or, at least, things with less media focus."

Amodei is considered a leading figure in the movements linked to EA and rationalism, which seek in part to reduce the risks associated with AI.

However, Anthropic sources told AFP that Amodei has distanced itself from EA and has stated that the company is not guided by any movement or ideology.

"Strong personality"

Gregory Diamos watched this son of an Italian immigrant take that turn.

While working at the Chinese company Baidu, Diamos recalls receiving a "completely out of character" application from a physicist and biologist who lacked "engineering or AI experience." It was Amodei.

However, he took a look at his previous work and found "some of the best (programming) code I had ever seen. If this self-taught computer scientist could do that, he could do well with us."

"He worked harder than anyone," even more than training engineers who looked down on him, Diamos recalls.

It was during that brief year at Baidu that his character began to emerge.

In that team of 300 people, "he had one of the strongest personalities," and he was always willing to debate concepts and lines of research, highlights Diamos. "He had no problem questioning researchers with much more experience than him."

In fact, these differences in approach were what led him, according to Diamos, to leave Baidu to join first Google and then OpenAI, from where he also left due to disagreements over the company's strategy.

Amodei considered that AI security was relegated to the background in OpenAI.

"When you realize the impact that this work is going to have on the world, you can't help but express what you think and try to influence" it, says Diamos.

Last weekend, "Saturday Night Live" featured Amodei as a tormented character unable to hide his anguish over the effects of AI.

"It is noticeable that there is an internal battle within him regarding the way he views AI, which is encouraging," says Henriques. "Is there also some marketing strategy? Maybe."

© 2026 AFP

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