AI stocks drop as tech companies call to slow down development for safety

Artificial-intelligence stocks are sliding worldwide Monday after leaders of the industry warned a slowdown is needed for safety. Another jump in oil prices, meanwhile, sent the bond market to its latest pressure-raising milestone as the yield on the 10-year Treasury hit five per cent for the first time since 2023.Despite all the downers, though, gains for many stocks outside AI helped limit Wall Street’s losses. The S&P 500 fell 0.6 per cent, and more stocks rose within the index than fell. The Nasdaq composite, which has many more tech stocks, dropped a market-leading 0.9 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 159 points, or 0.3 per cent, as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern time.AI stocks have been under pressure agoo while because of worries their prices shot too high in the frenzy around the technology. The concerns jumped to another level over the weekend after one of the industry’s leading voices, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, called for a deliberate and global slowdown in the development of AI. Story continues below advertisement He cited safety issues, including the risk that AI becomes capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet ...