INTERNACIONAL
Who is Dario Amodei, the Anthropic CEO pushing independent AI oversight?
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei believes artificial intelligence (AI) companies need the help of independent outside watchdogs to safeguard their developing technologies. But one of the organizations he believes could do the job, METR, is closely connected to the same AI safety community that has ties to Anthropic’s start.
Many of its leading figures have ties to a movement called «effective altruism (EA)» — the belief that evidence and careful reasoning can help maximize the good that companies and people can do with their time and resources.
METR describes itself as an AI safety testing laboratory.
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«METR evaluates frontier AI models to help companies and wider society understand AI capabilities and what risks they pose,» its website reads.
Although its website and public materials don’t make mention of effective altruism, its founders have used it as a framing for their work.
Beth Barnes, METR’s founder and CEO, worked at OpenAI alongside Amodei as the company developed early versions of ChatGPT.
At an Effective Altruism Global event, she laid out her vision for how to maintain AI safety.
«Our overall plan is — it sort of seems like it would be good if it was someone’s job to look at models and decide if they’re going to kill us, think through the ways that that might happen, anticipate them, figure out what the early warnings would be, that sort of thing,» Barnes said.
Similarly, Paul Christiano, who led the research around OpenAI’s efforts to ensure its models followed acceptable strategies for delivering requested results, later founded the first iteration of METR. He too has framed parts of his approach to AI safety as a form of effective altruism.
«My suspicion is that it is more important for the ‘effective altruism’ movement to have a fundamentally good product and to generally have our act together than for it to grow more rapidly,» Christiano said in a 2014 article.
Figures like Barnes and Christiano provide informal links to Anthropic — a company that received funding from effective altruism’s largest supporters when it emerged as a way of thinking among tech moguls. Barnes and Christiano also both worked on evaluations involving Anthropic models, providing safety checks for Anthropic’s flagship AI, Claude.
Most notably, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, led Anthropic’s 2022 Series B financing round before his company collapsed and he was convicted in a multibillion-dollar fraud case. Before FTX’s downfall, Bankman-Fried was one of the highest-profile proponents of the Effective Altruism movement, publicly saying it shaped his approach to earning and giving money.
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Similarly, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn led Anthropic’s 2021 Series A financing round. Tallinn has been one of the Effective Altruism movement’s most prominent supporters, speaking at Effective Altruism Global conferences, helping found the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and the Future of Life Institute, and donating more than $1 million to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, an organization focused on AI safety and alignment research.
Amodei isn’t calling for the rest of the industry’s leaders to submit to the thinking of METR, specifically. But in a recent letter, he used them as an example of the guidance he believes the industry needs.
Amodei proposed a plan: accountability could come through «embedded evaluators» that would supervise AI development companies.
«Each frontier AI company commits to giving ongoing, employee-like access to a team of embedded third-party evaluators (such as METR) whose role it is to verify adherence to safety practices and commitments, report incidents and help assess the alignment of not just completed AI models but training pipelines and processes.
«Regardless of what commitments we make, the public deserves to know what is going on. We are still the ones choosing what to include and omit. Embedded evaluators will change this dynamic,» Amodei wrote.
Few figures in the AI space are as well known for their efforts on AI safety as Amodei.
Amodei originally studied biophysics, earning a Ph.D. from Princeton in 2011. He would go on to become a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
After his studies, Amodei worked for a series of technology companies like Baidu, Google Brain, and, in 2016, OpenAI — the company that developed ChatGPT .During his time at Baidu, Amodei worked to develop speech recognition through machine learning, a kind of pattern identification. And at Google, he began working on safety while helping develop the company’s neural-net research, computer models that loosely mimics brain function.
At OpenAI, Amodei continued those themes, eventually becoming vice president of research as the company developed its ChatGPT 2 and ChatGPT 3 models.
In its early stages, the GPTs were asked to fill in blanks to sentences like: «Today, I went to the ______ and bought some milk and eggs,» and «I knew it was going to rain, but I forgot to take my ______.»
But just as the company began to discover that it could amplify the power of its models through larger and larger language models, Amodei left OpenAI in 2020. He believed the company wasn’t doing enough to install guardrails on what he saw as a budding reality of the technology he had long theorized about.
He also didn’t know if he could trust the company to set aside its financial interests.
«When you feel that you can’t trust someone, when you feel that their values are not what they say they are, when you feel that they’re not honest, when you feel that they’re not in it for the reasons that they say, when you see disturbing patterns of behavior, dishonesty, that makes it very hard to continue to work with a company, to continue to trust the company,» Amodei said in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year.
Since leaving OpenAI, Amodei helped start Anthropic, a company that has made AI safety a key part of its makeup. Anthropic even has a sort of constitution for its flagship AI; a guiding document laying out boundaries for its research.»Anthropic wants Claude to be genuinely helpful to the people it works with or on behalf of, as well as to society, while avoiding actions that are unsafe, unethical, or deceptive,» the company wrote.
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That directive has caused the company to clash with the U.S. Department of Defense over developing tools that could be used to autonomously target humans on the battlefield. It also refused to do work that, in its estimation, amounted to mass surveillance.
Although that tension cost Anthropic a $200 million contract, Amodei believes it’s time for the industry to take similar stances, especially as some companies began to report trouble controlling their own agents.
Amodei continues to believe that AI capabilities can grow safely, but only if the industry sets standards for how it achieves «safe.»
«I continue to believe that AI can enormously improve the quality of human life. My desire to achieve these benefits is undimmed. But the benefits will only be achieved if we build the technology in the right way, and — so long as we use the time we gain well — it is worth taking unusually deliberate care to get it right,» Amodei wrote in his letter.
politics, artificial intelligence, smart and safe tech, tech, technology
INTERNACIONAL
Kirk family has powerful evidence — but Utah law could derail wrongful death case: experts
A Utah government immunity law could upend the Kirk family’s efforts to bring a wrongful death lawsuit against Utah Valley University over alleged security failures surrounding Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Attorneys for Kirk’s family filed a notice of intent to sue on Sept. 9, one day before the anniversary of his death. The filing alleges a series of security failures by the university, including declining additional police officers, failing to adequately address concerns from Kirk’s security team and not having an adequate security plan in place for his visit.
But legal experts say the Kirks face an uphill legal battle because Utah law grants government entities — including their officers and employees — broad immunity from lawsuits arising from a lengthy list of circumstances, including the performance or failure to perform discretionary functions and claims involving assault, battery, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and civil rights violations.
«Unfortunately, Charlie Kirk’s family is going to have a very difficult time prevailing in a wrongful death case in Utah,» Tenielle Brown, a University of Utah law professor, told Digital. «And that’s because Utah’s government immunity statute is phrased in such a way that says even if the state and UVU were reckless, they retain immunity in cases that arise out of a battery, and that would include gunshot wounds.»
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Kirk, 31, co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012 and grew the conservative youth organization into a major force on high school and college campuses nationwide. He was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem on Sept. 10, 2025.
Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told Digital that wrongful death claims against the government are already difficult for plaintiffs to win because government entities generally enjoy broad immunity from lawsuits stemming from assaults or batteries committed by third parties.
«I’ve handled lack of security cases, including lack of security cases against the government,» Rahmani told Digital. «They are tough because you are trying to hold the police or city, county or state responsible for someone else’s criminal actions.»
But Rahmani suggested the Kirk family’s strongest evidence could be a message from UVU Police Chief Jeffrey Long acknowledging concerns about rooftop access to the Sorenson Center, a building located «pretty close» to where Kirk was scheduled to speak. The Sorenson Center sits directly west of the Losee Center, where prosecutors say Tyler Robinson fired the shot that killed Kirk. In response to the security concerns, Long messaged Kirk’s team, «I got you covered.»
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«That means they’re gonna argue that they assume the responsibility to make sure Charlie Kirk was safe, and they failed to do so,» Rahmani said of the Kirk family. «In cases where you have the government taking on a duty, that tends to be better than simply arguing that the government has a duty to protect everyone because we know that murders happen all the time, and you can’t sue the government just because someone is killed.»
But Brown said Utah law can shield government officials from lawsuits even when they fail to perform their job functions.
«There have been a number of cases where the plaintiffs and the family of the victims have sued for either wrongful death or battery,» Brown told Digital. «And in some cases, the government did behave recklessly, and they could show carelessness and recklessness and the plaintiffs were not able to prevail because it arose out of a battery. And that’s unusual. Most states don’t have that broad of a statute.»
Brown pointed to the case of Mika Scott, a 19-year-old Utah Valley University student who sued Utah County and the Utah County Sheriff’s Office after Shawn Leonard, a prisoner with a violent criminal record who had escaped from a work-release program, raped her in 2010.
«They were supposed to screen inmates to make sure that they weren’t violent,» Brown told Digital. «And then when they went out in the community on the job sites, they were supposed to make sure that they were policing the boundaries so that these inmates couldn’t escape and in a really terrible situation.»
«And she could have shown carelessness and maybe even recklessness, but because of the government immunity statute and because this claim arose out of a battery, she was not able to prevail against the state,» Brown continued.
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The Utah Supreme Court addressed the statute’s language in its 2005 decision in Wagner v. Utah, which held that civil battery does not require an intent to cause physical or psychological injury.
«The court said, it may not be prudent for the state to continue to retain immunity here,» Brown told Digital. » And they’re kind of signaling to the legislature that the legislature should probably change the statute to allow for suits in cases like Charlie Kirk’s.»
«But the state has not revised the statute and so it still says very clearly that you can’t sue the state if the claim arises out of a battery,» Brown continued.
Brown said state workers who are not elected cannot be held accountable at the ballot box for failing to do their jobs.
«The president of UVU, the campus police, those people are not elected, and so if you were to say sovereign immunity is all about letting people decide whether they’re state actors or careless at the ballot box, then you vote them out of office,» Brown said.
«That doesn’t work,» Brown continued. «That argument doesn’t for the UVU president because nobody can vote them of office, nobody is having any political check on the campus police.»
Astrid Tuminez, who served as the school’s president at the time of Kirk’s assassination, stepped down from her position in May 2026 after eight years. She and Long are named in the filing by Kirk’s family.
«We are aware of the notice of claim,» a Utah Valley University spokesperson said in a statement to Digital. «UVU addresses legal matters consistent with our established processes. Our focus remains on supporting our campus community.»
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Kirk leaves behind his wife Erika Kirk and their two small children.
Digital reached out to the Kirk family’s lawyers for comment.
charlie kirk, precedents, controversies state and local, judiciary, erika kirk, utah, law
INTERNACIONAL
Más de 3 mil guatemaltecos han retornado en septiembre: el acumulado anual llegó a 45 mil 615
El Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración registró 3,394 guatemaltecos retornados desde Estados Unidos durante los primeros 18 días de septiembre de 2026, con lo que el acumulado entre enero y ese mes ascendió a 45,615 personas. El flujo mantuvo niveles elevados tras los máximos alcanzados en julio y agosto, mientras Huehuetenango concentró más de cuatro de cada 10 retornados, según una publicación del Diario LaHora.
Julio fue el mes con más llegadas del año, con 7,035 personas, seguido por agosto, con 6,379. Ambos períodos reunieron casi el 30% de los retornos desde Estados Unidos contabilizados en los primeros nueve meses de 2026.
La cifra de septiembre es parcial porque el reporte fue divulgado el 18 de ese mes y puede modificarse con las actualizaciones posteriores. Antes del aumento del tercer trimestre, mayo había registrado 5,058 casos; febrero, 4,914; marzo, 4,871; abril, 4,767; enero, 4,749; y junio, 4,448.
Las estadísticas que incluyen retornos tanto desde Estados Unidos como desde México muestran otro universo de medición. Entre el 1 de enero y el 31 de agosto, esos dos países devolvieron a Guatemala 46,194 ciudadanos, frente a los 31,309 registrados en el mismo período de 2025: un aumento de 47.5%.
Adultos, menores y familias dentro del flujo de retornos
Los adultos sumaron 41,001 de las 45,615 personas retornadas desde Estados Unidos, cerca de nueve de cada 10 casos. Los restantes 4,614 correspondieron a niños, niñas y adolescentes.
Durante los primeros 18 días de septiembre regresaron 3,063 hombres adultos y 250 mujeres adultas. El registro incluyó además a 31 menores hombres y 31 menores mujeres que viajaban acompañados por familiares o responsables adultos.
Otros 19 menores retornaron sin acompañamiento: 16 hombres y tres mujeres. Su recepción requiere verificar la existencia de redes familiares, las condiciones de cuidado y los posibles riesgos que pueden enfrentar tras llegar al país.
El Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración identificó 426 unidades familiares integradas por 1,168 personas. Ese grupo estaba compuesto por 141 hombres adultos, 324 mujeres adultas, 388 niños y 315 niñas.
La información oficial incorporó además la pertenencia a comunidades lingüísticas de las personas retornadas. La comunidad K’iche’ concentró 5.585 casos, seguida por Q’eqchi’, con 2,876; Q’anjob’al, con 1,380; Kaqchikel, con 1,030; e Ixil, con 833.
El registro incluyó personas pertenecientes a las comunidades Achi’, Chuj, Akateko, Awakateko, Poqomam, Ch’orti’, Tz’utujil, Chalchiteko, Sipakapense, Sakapulteko, Tektiteko, Uspanteko, Mopán, Itza’, Garífuna y Xinca.
Huehuetenango reúne más de 19 mil retornados
El departamento de Huehuetenango encabezó la distribución territorial con 19.030 personas retornadas desde Estados Unidos. San Marcos ocupó el segundo lugar, con 6,051, y Quiché quedó tercero, con 5,049.
Quetzaltenango registró 3,191 retornados; Petén, 2,503; Guatemala, 2,491; y Alta Verapaz, 2,373. Las cifras de Huehuetenango, San Marcos y Quiché coinciden con los departamentos que ya figuraban entre los de mayor número de casos en las estadísticas de retornos desde Estados Unidos y México entre enero y agosto.
Otros departamentos superaron los mil casos: Chimaltenango, con 1,484; Suchitepéquez, con 1,449; Chiquimula, con 1,398; Jutiapa, con 1,299; Totonicapán, con 1,285; Baja Verapaz, con 1,223; Jalapa, con 1,137; Escuintla, con 1,130; y Sololá, con 1,024.
El Gobierno de Guatemala mantiene el Plan Retorno al Hogar, que articula servicios de empleo, capacitación, documentación, salud y educación para quienes regresan al país. La Agencia Guatemalteca de Noticias informó que el Centro de Atención y Registro atendió a 23.388 migrantes retornados entre enero y el 31 de agosto.
De esas personas, 1,785 ingresaron al mercado laboral, 1,296 recibieron capacitación y 155 obtuvieron certificaciones de competencias. Las instituciones participantes entregaron alimentos a 29,210 personas, incorporaron a 219 al sistema educativo y distribuyeron 20,769 tarjetas SIM con tiempo de aire.
Guatemala,deportación,migración,América Central
INTERNACIONAL
Qué pasó con el hombre que mató a puñaladas a una refugiada ucraniana en un tren de EE.UU.
La Justicia federal de Estados Unidos resolvió que Decarlos Brown Jr., el hombre acusado de asesinar a puñaladas a la refugiada ucraniana Iryna Zarutska en un tren de Charlotte en agosto de 2025, no está en condiciones de afrontar un juicio debido a su estado de salud mental.
El caso, que conmocionó a Carolina del Norte, quedó en suspenso desde junio mientras el imputado recibe tratamiento médico.
El juez federal Kenneth D. Bell aceptó el pedido de la defensa y ordenó que Brown, de 35 años, permanezca hasta cuatro meses en una institución médica penitenciaria. El objetivo es intentar restablecer su capacidad para comprender el proceso y colaborar con su defensa.
El informe psiquiátrico y la decisión judicial
Según la evaluación forense presentada en abril, Brown padece una enfermedad mental que le impide entender la naturaleza y las consecuencias del juicio, así como participar adecuadamente en su defensa.
El informe, presentado bajo secreto de sumario, indicó que existe un pronóstico favorable de recuperación si recibe la medicación adecuada.
El magistrado dispuso que Brown quede bajo custodia del fiscal general para su hospitalización y tratamiento.
Al finalizar el período de internación, la Justicia evaluará si el acusado recuperó la competencia para continuar con el proceso, si requiere más tratamiento o si resulta imposible restablecer su aptitud.
Los pedidos del acusado y el contexto del caso
En una presentación judicial, los abogados de Brown informaron que su cliente insistió en que el tribunal conociera su situación.
“Quiero decirle a la corte que tengo una emergencia corporal. Alguien tiene acceso total a mi cuerpo y me controla de manera indebida. La policía se niega a investigar y esto requiere una investigación”, expresó Brown, quien además sostuvo que fue mal diagnosticado con esquizofrenia.
El acusado enfrenta un cargo federal por causar la muerte en un sistema de transporte masivo, delito que puede ser penado con la muerte.
Además, hay una causa estatal por homicidio en primer grado, que quedó en pausa hasta que se resuelva el proceso federal.
Qué pasará con el proceso judicial
Una vez que finalice el tratamiento médico, el juez deberá determinar si Brown está en condiciones de ser juzgado.
Si su competencia es restablecida, el proceso continuará; de lo contrario, podría ordenarse un tratamiento prolongado o declararse su inimputabilidad definitiva.
Cómo fue el crimen de la joven ucraniana
Zarutska, que había huido de su Ucrania natal tras la invasión de su país por Rusia, regresaba a casa después de trabajar en una pizzería cuando Brown la apuñaló mortalmente en un tren la noche del 22 de agosto de 2025.
Un video grabado en el vagón por cámaras de seguridad muestra a Brown sentado detrás de Zarutska, antes de levantarse y clavarle un cuchillo en el cuello.
La joven murió minutos después en el tren, mientras que Brown huyó del lugar y fue arrestado poco después.
En una conversación con su hermana Tracey, Brown afirmó que mató a la joven porque “le leía la mente”.
La familia de Brown asegura que el hombre sufre de esquizofrenia paranoide y que venía mostrando signos de deterioro mental desde hacía tiempo. “Cuando vi el video, supe que había llegado a un punto de quiebre. No lo justifico, pero él no era así”, contó Tracey.
Tracey explicó que su hermano venía obsesionado con la idea de que el gobierno le había implantado un chip y que todos lo perseguían. “Me dijo varias veces que tenía ‘materiales’ en el cuerpo y que eso lo obligaba a hacer cosas”, explicó.
En una conversación telefónica desde la cárcel, Brown Jr. le contó a su hermana que no conocía a la víctima y que los supuestos “materiales” en su cerebro controlaban sus acciones. “Me lastimé la mano apuñalándola. Ni siquiera conocía a la señora. Nunca le dije una palabra. Es aterrador, ¿no? ¿Por qué alguien apuñalaría a otra persona sin motivo?”, expresó, visiblemente perturbado.
Incluso, en la conversación, se refirió a sí mismo en tercera persona y aseguró que “quien manejaba los materiales” fue quien “descargó la furia” sobre la joven.
La madre de Brown, Michelle Dewitt contó que días antes del ataque llevó a un refugio para personas en situación de calle porque se estaba poniendo cada vez más agresivo y que intentó hacerlo internar en vano.
“Cuando llevas a una persona a salud mental y te dicen ‘no tenemos suficiente espacio’ o ‘¿está intentando matarse o matar a alguien?’ y yo respondo que no, entonces no hay nada que podamos hacer, necesita una orden judicial”, explicó.
Sobre su hijo, afirmó “no creer que entienda lo que sucede”.
El caso reavivó el debate sobre la relación entre salud mental y seguridad pública en Estados Unidos. “La seguridad pública y la salud mental deben ser parte de una conversación permanente y conjunta”, sostuvo el exfiscal federal Michael Easley Jr.
Estados Unidos, Asesinato, Crimen, Carolina del Norte
Kirk family has powerful evidence — but Utah law could derail wrongful death case: experts
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