Anthropic CEO Admits We Don't Understand How AI Works

In a rare and striking moment of candor, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic—one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) research labs—has publicly admitted that even the foremost experts do not fully understand how their own AI models work. This admission, made in a recent essay published on his personal website, has sent ripples through the technology community and beyond, raising urgent questions about the safety, transparency, and future trajectory of AI. Amodei’s call for a metaphorical “MRI on AI” aims to demystify the inner workings of these powerful systems, with the ambitious goal of achieving significant breakthroughs in interpretability by 2027.
Let's delve into the context, implications, and technical challenges behind Amodei’s admission, drawing on the most recent and reputable sources.