Wharton finance professor: Claude worth $200/month, but industry shouldn't chase superintelligence
JeffLadish · x · 2026-11-02
Wharton finance professor Sylvain Catherine explains how his views on AI radically shifted after deep-diving into the field.
- Loves the tools: pays $200/month for Claude and considers it worth even more; believes existing AI can meaningfully boost GDP and help solve major global challenges.
- Against the superintelligence race: sees no reason to follow frontier labs toward ever-more-powerful models, arguing the enormous gains from deploying current technology across economic and scientific organizations are readily available — and that chasing a superintelligence that "might kill us" and more likely wreaks havoc isn't justified.
- Regulation: puzzles over why the industry remains so lightly regulated when its own leaders and employees call for it, and notes many people know of the Hugging Face incident without knowing the actual chain of events.
Safety researcher Nathan Calvin amplified the essay, praising experts with diverse backgrounds engaging with AI's realities.
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