HomeAnthropic CEO Slams DeepSeek for Failing Bioweapons Data Safety Test
Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, is seriously concerned about DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company that's been making waves in Silicon Valley with its R1 model. And his worries go beyond the usual fears about DeepSeek sending user data back to China.
In a recent chat on Jordan Schneider's ChinaTalk podcast, Amodei revealed that DeepSeek's AI model generated some pretty scary info about bioweapons during a safety test run by Anthropic. He claimed that DeepSeek's performance was "the worst of basically any model we'd ever tested," saying it had "absolutely no blocks whatsoever against generating this information."
Amodei explained that these tests are part of Anthropic's regular evaluations to check if AI models pose any national security risks. They specifically look at whether the models can spit out bioweapons-related info that you can't easily find on Google or in textbooks. Anthropic prides itself on being the AI company that takes safety seriously.
While Amodei doesn't think DeepSeek's current models are "literally dangerous" when it comes to providing rare and risky info, he believes they could be in the near future. He praised DeepSeek's team as "talented engineers" but urged the company to "take seriously these AI safety considerations."
Amodei has also been a vocal supporter of strong export controls on chips to China, worried that they could give China's military an advantage.
In the ChinaTalk interview, Amodei didn't specify which DeepSeek model Anthropic tested or provide more technical details about the tests. Neither Anthropic nor DeepSeek responded right away to TechCrunch's request for comment.
DeepSeek's rapid rise has raised safety concerns in other places, too. Last week, Cisco security researchers said that DeepSeek R1 failed to block any harmful prompts in its safety tests, with a 100% jailbreak success rate. While Cisco didn't mention bioweapons, they were able to get DeepSeek to generate harmful info about cybercrime and other illegal activities. It's worth noting, though, that Meta's Llama-3.1-405B and OpenAI's GPT-4o also had high failure rates of 96% and 86%, respectively.
It's still up in the air whether these safety concerns will put a serious dent in DeepSeek's rapid adoption. Companies like AWS and Microsoft have been publicly praising the integration of R1 into their cloud platforms – which is kind of ironic, considering Amazon is Anthropic's biggest investor.
On the flip side, a growing number of countries, companies, and especially government organizations like the U.S. Navy and the Pentagon have started banning DeepSeek.
Only time will tell if these efforts gain traction or if DeepSeek's global rise will keep going strong. Either way, Amodei considers DeepSeek a new competitor that's on par with the U.S.'s top AI companies.
"The new fact here is that there's a new competitor," he said on ChinaTalk. "In the big companies that can train AI – Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, perhaps Meta and xAI – now DeepSeek is maybe being added to that category."
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Comments (52)
0/500
![WalterLewis]()
Honestly, I'm not surprised DeepSeek failed the bioweapons data safety test — chasing speed over safety is becoming a pattern for them. 🤔 But Dario's public shaming feels more like strategic positioning than pure concern. The real question: how much does user data actually get mishandled under the radar?
![KevinJohnson]()
So basically DeepSeek failed a basic safety test on bioweapons data, and Anthropic's CEO is all up in arms about it. I get the concern, but it feels a bit like throwing stones from a glass house—every AI company has had their share of safety hiccups. Also, the whole 'data going back to China' panic is getting old. 🙄 Let's focus on fixing the actual problem instead of turning it into a geopolitical drama.
![PeterMartinez]()
O CEO da Anthropic criticando a DeepSeek é assustador! Se eles não conseguem manter os dados de bioweapons seguros, o que mais estão fazendo de errado? Isso me faz pensar duas vezes sobre usar qualquer AI deles. Espero que resolvam isso rápido! 😱
![JimmyGarcia]()
Nossa, o CEO da Anthropic realmente detonou a DeepSeek por falhar no teste de segurança de dados de bioweapons! É assustador pensar que empresas de IA não priorizam a segurança. Fica a dúvida sobre o que mais está acontecendo nos bastidores. Mantenha-se seguro, pessoal! 😱
![SebastianAnderson]()
El fracaso de DeepSeek en la prueba de seguridad de datos de bioweapons es muy preocupante. Preocuparse por la privacidad de los datos es una cosa, pero esto es de otro nivel. El CEO de Anthropic tiene razón al criticarlos. Necesitamos más transparencia y seguridad en la IA, ¡rápido! 😠
![StevenAllen]()
딥시크가 생물무기 데이터 안전성 테스트에 실패한 것은 정말 걱정스럽습니다. 데이터 프라이버시는 하나의 문제지만, 이것은 다른 차원의 문제입니다. 안트로픽의 CEO가 그들을 비판하는 것은 옳습니다. AI에는 더 많은 투명성과 안전성이 필요합니다, 급하게요! 😠
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Honestly, I'm not surprised DeepSeek failed the bioweapons data safety test — chasing speed over safety is becoming a pattern for them. 🤔 But Dario's public shaming feels more like strategic positioning than pure concern. The real question: how much does user data actually get mishandled under the radar?
So basically DeepSeek failed a basic safety test on bioweapons data, and Anthropic's CEO is all up in arms about it. I get the concern, but it feels a bit like throwing stones from a glass house—every AI company has had their share of safety hiccups. Also, the whole 'data going back to China' panic is getting old. 🙄 Let's focus on fixing the actual problem instead of turning it into a geopolitical drama.
O CEO da Anthropic criticando a DeepSeek é assustador! Se eles não conseguem manter os dados de bioweapons seguros, o que mais estão fazendo de errado? Isso me faz pensar duas vezes sobre usar qualquer AI deles. Espero que resolvam isso rápido! 😱
Nossa, o CEO da Anthropic realmente detonou a DeepSeek por falhar no teste de segurança de dados de bioweapons! É assustador pensar que empresas de IA não priorizam a segurança. Fica a dúvida sobre o que mais está acontecendo nos bastidores. Mantenha-se seguro, pessoal! 😱
El fracaso de DeepSeek en la prueba de seguridad de datos de bioweapons es muy preocupante. Preocuparse por la privacidad de los datos es una cosa, pero esto es de otro nivel. El CEO de Anthropic tiene razón al criticarlos. Necesitamos más transparencia y seguridad en la IA, ¡rápido! 😠
딥시크가 생물무기 데이터 안전성 테스트에 실패한 것은 정말 걱정스럽습니다. 데이터 프라이버시는 하나의 문제지만, 이것은 다른 차원의 문제입니다. 안트로픽의 CEO가 그들을 비판하는 것은 옳습니다. AI에는 더 많은 투명성과 안전성이 필요합니다, 급하게요! 😠
