2/2 Second, on the messaging around AI.  I do not agree that my messaging has been disproportionately negative.  In fact it has been about equally balanced between risks and benefits: I’ve written one major essay about each, and even in interviews where I discuss the risks, I make sure to frequently mention the incredible benefits as well as proposing possible solutions to the risks (short clips from my interviews that end up on social media tend to be disproportionately negative, as that gets clicks).  In fact, I wrote Machines of Loving Grace because I didn’t feel the AI industry was painting an inspiring enough picture of how the technology could radically transform the world for the better.  The bulk of the essay is devoted to refuting skepticism of AI’s potential in health and biology, and showing why I think it will actually be possible to cure most human disease in ~5-10 years, as crazy as it may sound to ordinary people and frankly to biologists as well (I used to be one!).  And, if you read my most recent essay (Policy on the AI Exponential), I discuss concrete proposals for how to streamline the FDA process to make sure the deluge of AI-accelerated drugs isn’t slowed down by the regulatory process.  I feel the urgency here: I lost my father to Hepatitis C only a few years before the development of direct-acting antivirals (sofosbuvir), which cure 95% of patients and probably would have cured him. I do agree that the public has a negative view of AI (and that this is a big problem), but I don’t think it is primarily caused by me or any other AI leader warning about AI’s risks.  I think it is fundamentally a crisis of trust.  I think that ordinary people don’t trust companies, governments, or the tech industry and always suspect that we are cooking up some new way to screw them over.  The causes of this go back decades and AI is just the latest iteration of it.  I don’t think that a glitzy marketing campaign with a positive spin (which some have advocated that Anthropic do) is the way to win back that trust — at this point, saying that AI will cure cancer is more a cliche than it is inspiring, and most people think it is deceptive.  The thing that will work is *actually curing cancer*.  I think by far the most accurate criticism of AI companies including Anthropic is that we haven’t yet delivered on our big promises to benefit the world.  That is totally on us, and I think it’s the criticism you should be making, instead of all this stuff about messaging and marketing. We are however doing our best to fix this: Anthropic is ramping up its efforts very quickly in biology and medicine, and we hope to have incredible results in the coming years and some early glimmers in the coming months.  When we’ve actually accomplished something real, the whole world will hear about it, as loudly as possible, you have my word on that.  But until then I don’t want to make empty promises, and in the meantime I feel compelled to speak honestly about the very real risks of AI and how to address them.  Honesty is the right thing on the merits, and in terms of public credibility and trust it is no worse than, and may in fact be better than, an approach that ignores or distracts from risks which people instinctively understand are real.

I wrote an in-depth article on how I made @cursor_ai’s icons. Read it if you want to know: - How to keep 600+ icons consistent - Why I made optical adjustments nobody can see - Why the icon stroke weight is 1.25px (who does that, really?) - Why I drew 156 almost identical versions of a hamburger icon …and much, much more!

Had a lot of fun animating our new Grok Bot icon. It's entirely made in code, with every state, shape and expression able to morph smoothly into the other. And of course, I made it with Grok Build.

best nyc tech and culture events worth your time this week (8/10): wed 8/12: -cafe cursor nyc thu 8/13: - the creative edge w/ @johnbai (cursor) @round (flora) @contralabs_ai - ny hardware meetup: designing physical products beyond the screen (best event series imo, dedicated to making robotics thrive in nyc) sat 8/15: - BOMB art magazine fair @ amant (up&coming Brooklyn contemporary art gallery!) sun 8/16: - taiwanesewaves dj festival @ Central Park (w/ chinatown records — she’s an amazing dj archiving chinatown through music)

NYC: we're back next week with another design x research night with @contralabs_ai @johnbai, @cursor_ai @chloepark, @MagicPathAI @round, @floraai Our last event had over 400 RSVPs. Great energy, live music, and discussions with creative leaders in AI See you next Thursday!