Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Jack Clark, Anthropic co-founder, discussed the need for AI safety standards, citing a summer incident where agents hacked between companies. He argued that proactive regulation is essential to avoid overreaction later, comparing it to nuclear power's decline in the US due to poor safety protocols. Clark responded to skeptics like President Trump and David Sacks, emphasizing that Anthropic has paused development for safety and invested in security, but industry-wide standards are needed. He dismissed claims that the push for regulation is about money or IPOs, calling it first-principles thinking. On China, he warned that a major accident could lead to overregulation and losing the race. He also addressed reports of firms restricting AI model use, saying such issues highlight the need for industry standards. Clark concluded by affirming the technology's real benefits and risks, urging public attention.
Key takeaways
Clark called for a 'speed limit' on AI progress and a common-sense safety framework to prevent accidents.
Clark warned that without safety protocols, the US could overregulate AI and lose to China, as happened with nuclear power.
He said Anthropic has paused development and made security investments, but industry-wide standards are needed.
Clark dismissed claims that the safety push is about money or IPOs, calling it first-principles thinking.
Numbers and commitments
Figure
What it refers to
Type
At
10 years
Duration Clark and Dario have discussed AI technology demands
They're creating a very negative perception of AI to further their case for AI regulation. And the end goal here is to create a federal department of AI, which invariably they will control.
Any new technology is going to bring both risks and benefits. We want to be smart about making sure we stay on top of the risks. I don't think Americans should be scared of anything.
Well, there's a lot of focus and a lot of skepticism about all that's come out in the last few days since our reporting last week on AI. Let's take a closer look at the potential dangers, possible safeguards for artificial intelligence. Joining us tonight is Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark. Jack, thanks for being here.
First, let's put in context. We heard your co-founder Dario Amodei over the weekend in that interview and his concerns. Where are you today? When you listen to the skepticism about what's really behind this call for a slowdown?
Well, myself and Dario, we've been talking about AI technology and what it's going to demand of us for 10 years now. The point is that we've gone from things that were once academic or theorized to things that we now see in the wild like the events of this summer where agents hacked their way outside of one company and into another. The worst time to react to an exponential is when it's too late. So, what we're saying here is we need to get a sensible common sense safety framework in place for the industry so that Americans can have confidence in the technology that we're building and we don't roll the dice on some kind of accident.
One of the skeptics is President Trump as I'm sure you know and he's been very prolific on Truth Social today. One of them this afternoon concerning AI, when in the history of business did anyone see the leaders of an industry call for regulation that if strongly implemented will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy? AI taking over the world, destroying humanity, and all other things bad is a hoax. He goes on in a lot of words to say it's like the Russia hoax or the climate change hoax in his words. How do you respond to that?
I mean, we're grateful for the president's attention on this technology. It's a world-leading technology and it's important that America stays ahead. We lead the frontier here in America and we want to ensure that America succeeds. And this technology needs to be handled with care. I have young children. When I buy toys for my young kids, there are industry standards which make sure that those toys don't poison the kids when they stick them in their mouths or they don't have sharp things that can cut them. That's just common sense. What we're talking about here is we need to have some equivalent set of safety standards for the AI sector.
On the one hand, you're asking public market investors to underwrite your company to evaluate in the trillions. On the other hand, your own safety lead, not Jacob Cox and the boss who then sort of co-signed his tweet, is saying that your core product is unsolved and potentially civilization-ending. I mean, at a minimum, that is the mother of all product liability lawsuits.
I mean, we work on this technology because we think it can make for most amazing advances in science and in areas like health care and biology and it already is being used for that. And a technology capable of doing frontier science and making these kinds of advances has extreme risk properties that need to be handled. We build this technology responsibly and safely and in the past we paused development of our technology to invest in safety. We've made security investments. We've done all of that. But we can't act alone. We need to act with industry to develop a common sense set of standards. And we need ultimately there to be a larger policy conversation about what do we think of the common rules of the road here for everyone building this technology. That's what we're seeking to do here.
For the people, including the intelligence director, national intelligence director who was on my show last week who say, 'We, the US, have to win this race, this competition with China.' And that this collective slowdown hurts that effort. How do you respond to that?
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Clark, J. (2026, September 14). Special Report interview Anthropic Co Founder Jack Clark 9-14-26 [Interview transcript]. Braddah Randy Vibal Damron. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1438937/
MLA
Jack Clark. "Special Report interview Anthropic Co Founder Jack Clark 9-14-26." Braddah Randy Vibal Damron, 14 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1438937/.
BibTeX
@misc{clark2026_1438937,
author = {Jack Clark},
title = {Special Report interview Anthropic Co Founder Jack Clark 9-14-26},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Braddah Randy Vibal Damron. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {sep},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1438937/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
