Technology stocks in global markets fell yesterday following a call from industry leaders to slow down the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Concerns about the potential threats of AI to humanity have caused investors to become significantly worried.
Significant Decline in Global Markets
In a troubling start to the week for investors, the Nasdaq index, which is heavily influenced by technology, dropped more than 1 percent in early trading and later recovered some of those losses. The Philadelphia index, which tracks a group of chip manufacturers, also fell by up to 6 percent.
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Among major companies, Arm Holdings saw a 10 percent decrease, Nvidia dropped by 3 percent, Advanced Micro Devices fell by 4 percent, and Micron Technology experienced a 5 percent decline.
Warnings from Industry Leaders
This drop on Wall Street coincided with warnings from Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, about the need for greater caution in the development of AI technology. Amodei warned that if companies do not pay attention to the safety of their systems, a group of AI agents could potentially take control of the internet within six months to a year.
He added, "Slowing down development will significantly reduce the risk of serious problems occurring." Meanwhile, former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that there is a "sick conspiracy" against AI in the United States and that the only country happy about this situation is China.
Trump also stated, "Whoever wins in AI wins. We have outpaced China and others, and we will continue to do so."
Negative reactions to these comments led to a sharp decline in Asian markets, with the Kospi index in South Korea falling by 3.3 percent. In Tokyo, shares of technology investment giant SoftBank dropped by 10.7 percent, pulling the Nikkei index down by 0.8 percent.
Concerns about rising interest rates and oil prices exceeding $109 per barrel have also impacted investor sentiment. Ross Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said, "Concerns stemming from oil and AI have created two headaches for investors."
Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 index rose by 0.4 percent, or 47.13 points, to reach 10,697.57 points, as major oil companies BP and Shell saw price increases.
Concerns about AI have put industry leaders in direct conflict with Donald Trump, who sees this technology as a key economic engine and wants to keep the United States at the forefront of global competition.
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