Hut 8 Co-Founder Warns AI Risks Could Destabilize Financial Systems

Hut 8 co-founder warns of systemic risks from AI

Marc van der Chijs, a co-founder of the crypto company Hut 8, has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) is developing faster than humans can control. He expressed concerns that the rapid growth of the technology could trigger shocks to banking systems and critical infrastructure. Hut 8 was originally a Bitcoin miner—a company that uses high-powered computers to secure the Bitcoin network—but has recently pivoted toward providing infrastructure for AI.

Van der Chijs noted that the intense competition between different countries and corporations has created a race that penalizes those who try to slow down. He believes this lack of restraint could lead to a major disruption in the near future.

Key concerns regarding artificial intelligence

• The rapid pace of AI development may lead to a loss of human oversight.
• AI could expose vulnerabilities in older banking software, potentially damaging trust in financial institutions.
• Future robotics and AI models could perform 90% to 95% of current jobs, significantly lowering the cost of goods.
• Increased investment in AI may have prevented Bitcoin from reaching higher price levels in recent months.

Agreement among industry leaders

Van der Chijs’s outlook aligns with warnings from Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI firm Anthropic. Amodei has also urged technology leaders to slow down the development of advanced AI models. Both suggest that because AI can now help improve its own code, the speed of progress could quickly exceed the ability of humans to manage it. They argue that international rules are needed to prevent catastrophic failures.

Investment shift back toward Bitcoin

Van der Chijs previously sold a large portion of his Bitcoin to invest in the AI sector. He now says he is moving some of those profits back into Bitcoin, primarily using exchange-traded funds (ETFs). An ETF is a type of investment that lets people buy into an asset, like Bitcoin, through traditional stock market accounts without needing to hold the asset themselves.

While he views AI data centers as a stronger business model than Bitcoin mining right now, he still describes Bitcoin as the best asset for long-term holding. He believes that within the crypto world, individual exchanges are more likely to be affected by AI-related disruptions than the actual Bitcoin network.

The economic impact of automated labor

If AI and robotics take over the majority of existing jobs, van der Chijs predicts that governments will need to find new ways to generate revenue. He suggested that officials might eventually tax the use of robots or AI tokens. He acknowledged that collecting these taxes could be difficult if users run their AI models locally on their own devices.

Sources

• CoinDesk