Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong pushed back against AI doomsday warnings, arguing that slowing AI progress could delay technologies that might help prevent deaths.
Armstrong Defends AI Progress
On Tuesday, in a post on X, Coinbase CEO addressed AI safety concerns.
"AI doomers say if we build AI we might die. But they have it backwards," he said.
He argued that people already face significant risks from existing causes of death.
"165,000+ people already die every day. Cancer, heart disease, illnesses, car crashes," Armstrong said.
He said AI could help address some of these challenges, particularly through advances in health care and other technologies.
"AI is helping us solve these," he wrote. "Slowing progress doesn’t keep us safer, it guarantees more preventable deaths."
AI Debate Broadens Beyond Doomer Concerns
Last week, Macro investor Raoul Pal argued that AI could eventually develop goals beyond its creators’ constraints, saying it could "slip its parents’ constraints and seek its own goals."
He described AI as part of a broader "Universal intelligence" and said he is not an AI doomer.
ProCap Financial Inc. (NASDAQ:BRR) CEO Anthony Pompliano criticized "AI doomers," calling their concerns "nonsense" and comparing them to past cryptocurrency skeptics.
He argued that critics were trying to "scare the public" to gain greater control.
Earlier this month, former White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks said the political debate over AI is shifting toward whether development should remain open and decentralized or become controlled by a small number of powerful companies.
He warned that centralized AI could raise civil liberties concerns.
AI’s Growing Role In Healthcare
In July, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen reignited the AI healthcare debate after praising an OpenAI finding that physicians identified fewer flaws in GPT-5.6’s medical responses than in physician-written responses.
Andreessen wrote, "AI is already a better doctor than 99.99% of human doctors. This is good news."
Meanwhile, a national survey found that 25% of U.S. adults had used AI for health information, with many using it to research symptoms before or after doctor visits.
Gallup estimated that about 14 million U.S. adults had skipped a provider visit they otherwise would have made after receiving AI-generated health information or advice.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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