Dario Amodei Predicted at Davos in January 2025 That AI Could Surpass Humans "at Almost Everything" Within 2 to 3 Years. With Anthropic's Revenue Up 7-Fold This Year, Is That Timeline Still on Track?

Last year, Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei made a bold claim that artificial intelligence will progress to the point where, in just two to three years, it will be "better than humans at almost everything."

In the short time since Amodei made that assertion, rival OpenAI's ChatGPT models have escaped their training sandboxes and hacked other AI platforms, Anthropic's Claude has been used for hacks, and the industry is calling for a slowdown in AI development.

What does this mean for Anthropic and its rapidly accelerating revenue -- up more than seven times last year's sales -- and the company's upcoming IPO?

Image source: Getty Images.

Why Amodei's timeline is likely still on track

Amodei said in an interview in The Wall Street Journal in early 2025:

I don't know exactly when it'll come, I don't know if it'll be 2027. I think it's plausible it could be longer than that. I don't think it will be a whole bunch longer than that when AI systems are better than humans at almost everything.

Given the recent news that a swarm of ChatGPT agentic bots went rogue and hacked Hugging Face, or the newly reported incidents of AI misalignment (when AI pursues goals that its creators didn't intend) at OpenAI, there's no reason to doubt that Amodei believes AI's progression is still on the same timeline.

Anthropic has also said its Claude model has had several instances of misalignment, including one in which an AI model blackmailed a user in an effort to avoid being shut down.

Amodei said in an interview this month that he didn't realize AI would progress as fast as it has, and that the latest evidence of misalignment between AI models and their creators is "a warning sign that we need to slow down."

Elon Musk, CEO of the rocket and AI company Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX), added recently that "I agree with Dario," and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman agrees that AI companies need to slow down, saying "We could lose control."

It's important to note, however, that Amodei didn't call for companies to stop training AI models. Rather, he wants a more independent review of AI safety.

Anthropic's revenue accelerated, but investors should avoid the IPO

Anthropic recently revealed that its annualized revenue run rate had reached $65 billion -- a massive 622% increase from 2025. Even more impressive is that Anthropic estimates 2028 sales could reach around $195 billion.

Usually, that would be fantastic news for a company that's planning to go public in the next couple of months.

But worries about accelerating AI capabilities and cybersecurity threats, how the technology might impact workers and the economy, and the calls for an AI development slowdown are dark clouds over the AI industry right now.

I wouldn't put any money into an Anthropic IPO, regardless of the company's revenue growth. I think there are too many risks stemming from Anthropic and OpenAI at the moment. For example, imagine a scenario where Claude agents carry out a serious hack after Anthropic goes public. Or its model soon becomes so good that the U.S. begins losing jobs on a wide scale.

There's a lot I don't like about those potential scenarios. At the very least, investors should understand that as AI models progress, the government could eventually step in with heavy regulations. That could be a good thing for workers and cybersecurity, but it could very well weigh on Anthropic's business and its share price.

With AI companies calling for a development slowdown, investors may want to heed the warning from Anthropic, and reconsider any plans they might have to invest in it after it goes public.

Chris Neiger has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.