S&P 500, Nasdaq fall on AI slowdown fears, oil price surge

U.S. stocks fell Monday as calls from major AI company leaders to slow development of the technology rattled chip stocks, while surging oil prices added to pressure on equities. The S&P 500 shed 0.7%, the Nasdaq Composite gave back 1.2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 140 points lower, a decline of 0.3%. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued in an essay Saturday that AI companies need to reduce the pace of innovation on their most capable models due to safety risks. Amodei told CBS News on Sunday that the "toughest dilemma" posed by any such proposal involves the question of whether China would agree to do the same. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a separate Saturday interview that an IPO this year would be "ill-advised," according to CNBC.