'We have lost control': Crypto pioneer warns AI could trigger systemic banking and infrastructure shocks
- Hut 8 co-founder Marc van der Chijs says competition among companies and nations has accelerated artificial intelligence development beyond human control, potentially putting financial systems and critical infrastructure at risk.
- He predicts AI and robotics could eventually perform 90% to 95% of existing jobs and sharply reduce costs, forcing governments to consider new revenue sources such as taxes on robots or AI usage.
- Van der Chijs has shifted much of his investment from bitcoin to AI and favors AI data centers over bitcoin mining, but he still considers bitcoin the best asset to hold for life.
Marc van der Chijs, an entrepreneur who co-founded then bitcoin miner Hut 8 (HUT), has become increasingly concerned about the technology to which the company has pivoted: artificial intelligence.
“I’ve become more of a doomer over the past week, to be honest,” he told CoinDesk in an interview.
The concern marks a shift for an investor who compares AI’s potential today with bitcoin when he entered the market in 2013. He still expects the technology to transform the economy, but increasingly questions whether humans can retain control over its development.
“We have lost control, actually,” he said. “And until we get the control back, I’m actually worried that we’re moving too fast.”
Van der Chijs’s shift toward a "doomer" outlook mirrors warnings issued by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who urged tech leaders to slow the pace of frontier AI development. Amodei similarly cautioned that rapid progress—driven by AI models recursively improving themselves—risks exceeding human control and causing widespread infrastructure damage.
Both men point to the same structural trap: an intense competitive race between companies and nation-states that penalizes individual restraint, making systemic disruption or catastrophic failure seem almost inevitable before true international guardrails are established.
AI exposing vulnerabilities
Van der Chihs fears a major disruption, potentially affecting financial systems or critical infrastructure, may be needed before governments cooperate.