Ex-Anthropic Researcher’s Apocalyptic Warning That AI May ‘Kill Us All’ Sends Chills Across the Internet
(Screengrab via CBS News)
An AI researcher who quit Anthropic sent a chill through the internet Tuesday with an apocalyptic prediction that the technology he helped build could “kill us all by the end of the decade.”
Jacob Coxon’s extraordinary resignation thread, posted to X on Tuesday, quickly drew alarm across the spectrum as he announced his departure from Anthropic, having also formerly worked at OpenAI, and accused leading AI companies of “gambling with our lives” as they race to develop increasingly powerful systems.
He explained that people must “not underestimate the power of this technology,” arguing that the capabilities now being pursued could rapidly move beyond anything currently available.
“These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources. We have all witnessed the progress in each of these domains, and progress is not slowing,” Coxon wrote.
He accused Anthropic and OpenAI of “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence” that could potentially accelerate the technology beyond human control.
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade,” he wrote.
Just as alarming, two other researchers from the company went public with the same claims.
Coxon’s thread triggered an unusually broad wave of reaction online, with liberal and conservative commentators, politicians, investors and media personalities weighing in on Coxon’s warning and what it suggested about the industry racing to build the technology.
Both Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau and MAGA-aligned billionaire investor Bill Ackman offered the same stunned reply:
Democratic strategist and 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang urged companies to “adjust” course before “it’s too late”:
Progressive Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), and conservative podcaster Patrick Bet-David were among those raising questions on how things must change:
Other pundits also weighed in, in shock:
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