Dario Amodei’s 2017 OpenAI Essay Foresaw Scaling Compute Driving AI Progress

7 Oct 2026, 10:00 am · 19h ago · 1 min read · OfficeChai

Anthropic co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei's 2017 internal essay at OpenAI, titled "Big Blob of Compute," has resurfaced, highlighting his early predictions regarding the trajectory of artificial intelligence. Written years before his widely discussed "Machines of Loving Grace" manifesto, the memo argued that scaling computational power and parameters would fundamentally unlock emergent model capabilities. The resurfaced essay illustrates how early foundational beliefs around brute-force scaling laws shaped OpenAI’s trajectory and later formed the philosophical foundation for Anthropic, reinforcing compute infrastructure as the core driver of modern large language model development across global technology ecosystems.