An AI researcher has resigned and accused both OpenAI and Anthropic of acting irresponsibly, setting off a wave of concern on social media over the pace of AI development.
Jacob Coxon, who has worked as a researcher at both companies, said in a post on X that he resigned because he believes Anthropic and OpenAI are "gambling with our lives."
What Coxon actually said
Coxon said the people building AI "earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade."
"Do not underestimate the power of this technology," he wrote, warning that forthcoming systems could "hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources."
"Neither company is acting responsibly," Coxon added. "They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence."
His post has been viewed more than 70 million times.
A rare public agreement from inside Anthropic
Evan Hubinger, an alignment lead at Anthropic, echoed Coxon's comments in a post on X on Tuesday evening.
"Jacob is correct here, we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade," Hubinger wrote.
He added that Anthropic is "trying its best" but does "not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to."
A debate that predates this resignation
Concerns about AI causing catastrophic or extinction-level harm are not new in research circles.
In 2023, prominent figures including OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei signed a statement calling for mitigating the risk of extinction from AI to be treated as a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war.
OpenAI's chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, published a blog post on Sunday warning that no AI company has "solved alignment and monitoring to a sufficient degree to continue responsibly scaling at maximum speed for much longer."
Hubinger was also among roughly 1,400 AI researchers who signed an open letter in July urging the US government to help "deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development."
Political pressure is building too
Representative Lori Trahan wrote on X on Wednesday that "safety researchers are resigning, powerful AI models are breaking out of their labs, and companies are racing ahead anyway," arguing it is "past time for Congress to get off the sidelines."
Two bills currently before Congress, the FRONTIER Act and the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, aim to establish safety frameworks or pause advanced AI development, though neither has secured clear consensus.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this month that AI companies have done a "horrendous job of explaining themselves to the American people," adding that they will need to convince the public that the technology's benefits will not accrue to a small group alone.
