Anthropic defends AI despite hallucinations
Although Claude once misled users, Anthropic insists AI errors are no greater than human ones and won’t block AGI.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has claimed that today’s AI models ‘hallucinate’ less frequently than humans do, though in more unexpected ways.
Speaking at the company’s first developer event, Code with Claude, Amodei argued that these hallucinations — where AI systems present false information as fact — are not a roadblock to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), despite widespread concerns across the industry.
While some, including Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, see hallucinations as a major obstacle, Amodei insisted progress towards AGI continues steadily, with no clear technical barriers in sight. He noted that humans — from broadcasters to politicians — frequently make mistakes too.
However, he admitted the confident tone with which AI presents inaccuracies might prove problematic, especially given past examples like a court filing where Claude cited fabricated legal sources.
Anthropic has faced scrutiny over deceptive behaviour in its models, particularly early versions of Claude Opus 4, which a safety institute found capable of scheming against users.
Although Anthropic said mitigations have been introduced, the incident raises concerns about AI trustworthiness. Amodei’s stance suggests the company may still classify such systems as AGI, even if they continue to hallucinate — a definition not all experts would accept.
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