Burry Blasts AI Safety Hype as 'Self-Serving' Incumbent Play

Hedge fund manager Michael Burry has taken aim at the AI industry's safety narrative, calling recent calls to slow down development 'self-serving' and designed to benefit incumbents.

Burry argues that large language models (LLMs) are not true artificial intelligence and will never become artificial general intelligence (AGI), making it unnecessary to pump the brakes on their development.

The market apparently took safety warnings seriously, with AI-related stocks declining on September 14. OpenAI has confirmed it will not pursue an IPO in 2026, citing ongoing work on safety and alignment, while Anthropic is reportedly eyeing a Nasdaq listing with a target valuation of $2 trillion.

Burry sees both approaches as representing different flavors of the same game, where safety concerns are used to justify staying private or pursuing astronomical public valuations. He believes investors should focus on whether AI adoption will accelerate dramatically across industries, rather than relying on rhetoric about slowing deployment.