SNL Sketch Pokes Fun at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Over AI Doom Warnings

Saturday Night Live aimed its humor at the recent wave of apocalyptic warnings from the artificial intelligence industry, presenting a Weekend Update sketch about Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei performed by cast member Jane Wickline.

Weekend Update host Michael Che introduced the bit by joking that he was unsure how to pronounce Amodei's surname. He then described the executive as clumsily moving through a media tour while seeming to support an ex-employee's warning that AI could wipe out humanity.

Wickline's Amodei wore a striking wig and delivered hesitant answers that at times turned into an internal struggle with a darker personality. The character confessed that AI was a diabolical creation.

As a fictional version of the AI leader, she told viewers that executives in the field shared a common message: they did not approve of the work they were doing. She also joked that AI was not itself a weapon, but a means of making weapons, and urged the audience to demand that she be stopped.

The sketch mocked the industry's promises of major benefits, such as potentially curing cancer. The fictional Amodei said there was only about a one-in-ten chance that cancer would stop being a problem within ten years.