FSD: Anthropic Wants to ‘Slow it Down’

In this episode, Ram Ahluwalia breaks down the shaky market conditions as oil prices surge past $108 per barrel, the 10-year Treasury yield touches 5%, and the Federal Reserve prepares for its upcoming interest rate decision. Ram analyzes market expectations around rate hikes, arguing that long-term yields could actually flatten or fall if the Fed establishes a credible inflation-fighting posture. The core of the discussion focuses on the recent controversy surrounding Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's open letter on AI "catastrophic risks" and calls for self-regulation. Ram dissects the strategic motivations behind Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk aligning on safety narratives, contrasting them with Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive push for faster AI development. He further explores why frontier AI labs may be experiencing a slowdown in fundamental breakthroughs, the limits of current engineering "hacks" like chain-of-reasoning and looping, and why the physical demand for compute and chips remains unstoppable.