Anthropic’s Dario Amodei gets the SNL treatment

Saturday Night Live took aim at recent alarmist statements from the AI sector in a Weekend Update bit that spoofed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Michael Che opened the segment noting Amodei’s fraught press appearances and a reported comment by a former employee suggesting AI could threaten humanity.

Jane Wickline, wearing a distinctive wig, played a halting, defensive version of Amodei who oscillated between formal answers and theatrical asides to an imagined darker impulse. The fictional CEO at one point declared, “AI is the devil and I its maker,” a line used to underscore the sketch’s portrayal of internal contradiction.

The parody leaned into the tension between claims of AI’s societal benefits and its potential harms. Wickline’s Amodei mockingly framed AI as both a non-weapon and “a tool for building weapons,” and urged viewers to “urge me to stop,” lampooning industry messaging around control and responsibility.

The sketch also touched on claimed long-term benefits often cited by AI leaders, with the impersonated executive offering a quip about cancer: “In 10 years, there’s about a 10% chance that cancer won’t be a problem for anyone.” The bit used humor to engage with ongoing public conversations about the promises and perils of advanced AI technologies.