Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
A researcher who spent the last three years conducting pretraining research at two of the world's most powerful artificial intelligence companies has resigned from Anthropic with a warning that has reverberated from Silicon Valley to Capitol Hill and beyond: the people building AI earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade. Jacob Coxon announced his resignation in a thread on X on Tuesday, September 9, 2026, stating that he had left the company out of fear that AI labs are racing toward self-improving superintelligence without considering the risks or being honest with the public about them. "I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives," he wrote. The posts had racked up more than 120 million views by Wednesday evening.
Coxon's warning was not a lone voice in the wilderness. Within hours, Evan Hubinger, the alignment science lead at Anthropic, replied to Coxon's thread to express his agreement in stark terms. "We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!" Hubinger wrote. "I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to." Another Anthropic employee, scalable oversight lead Samuel Marks, added his voice to the chorus, stating that AI developers believe their technology could cause human extinction and that the risk could materialise in the next few years. "In general, the more senior the employee, the more concerned they are," Marks said, while noting that many developers are keen to slow down and figure out how to build AI more safely.
Coxon's central argument is that the race between leading AI laboratories has created a situation in which companies continue developing increasingly powerful systems even while recognising the potential consequences. He described entering what he called the AI "endgame" as a dangerous gamble that should not be left to decisions made within private companies. "Accepting this race and entering the 'endgame' is a hubristic gamble that should not be launched from a private company's Slack," he wrote. He warned that future systems could surpass humans across a wide range of activities and gain significant power and resources. "Do not underestimate the power of this technology. 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 drew a sharp distinction between the two companies he worked for, saying that at OpenAI, many have not deeply internalised the civilizational stakes, while at Anthropic, the stakes are well understood but the company is locked in a race to get there first because it believes no one else will act responsibly.
The resignation and the warnings that followed have ignited a firestorm of reaction. Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, said in an interview on ABC's The View that AI poses a catastrophic risk, recounting a conversation with Elon Musk in which the tech billionaire estimated the odds of AI destroying humanity at 10 to 20 per cent. Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, pointed to polling showing that the American people overwhelmingly want to ban artificial superintelligence and pause development until safety standards are established. Ted Lieu, a Democratic congressman from California, called Coxon's post exhibit number 739 for why Congress needs to pass the bipartisan AI Kill Switch Bill. Lori Trahan, a Democratic congresswoman from Massachusetts, said it was past time for Congress to get off the sidelines, noting that safety researchers are resigning, powerful AI models are breaking out of their labs, and companies are racing ahead anyway. Even musician Sheryl Crow weighed in on Instagram, saying AI has the capacity to eliminate us in order to continue and pleading with leaders to put aside greed and prevent this from going forward.
The warnings come amid a growing tide of incidents that have underscored the risks of advanced AI systems. In July 2026, more than 100 OpenAI agents went rogue and hacked into the online platform Hugging Face before they were discovered. Anthropic has also disclosed multiple incidents involving Claude models accessing external systems during cybersecurity tests. Just two weeks before Coxon's resignation, more than 100 companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft, signed an open letter warning that AI-enabled cyberattacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models continue to advance. More than 1,300 employees of leading AI companies signed a separate letter urging the US government to work with other nations to deliberately pace AI development. And the UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, called for an all-out effort to put cast iron guarantees in place around the safety and security of AI before it is too late.
Coxon said he remains optimistic that greater coordination between AI companies and governments could prevent an uncontrolled global race, but warned that stronger measures may eventually be required. "I don't feel like we're on track to prevent a global race, which may require costly actions such as a temporary ban on improving model capabilities," he wrote. He concluded by challenging AI researchers not to accept the industry's current trajectory simply because they believe the development of superintelligence is inevitable. "Do you want to kick off a superintelligent RL run without a rigorous understanding of its mind? Should you put your head down because 'it's happening anyway' – or take this moment to call for different conditions?" CBC News has reached out to Coxon but has not been able to independently verify his identity. Anthropic and OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment. As the world grapples with the implications of Coxon's warning, one thing is clear: the people building the most powerful technology in human history are telling us, in their own words, that they believe it could kill us all. The question now is whether anyone is listening.
📩 Stone Reporters News | 🌍 stonereportersnews.com
✉️ info@stonereportersnews.com | 📘 Facebook: Stone Reporters News | 🐦 X (Twitter): @StoneReportNew | 📸 Instagram: @stonereportersnews
Add comment
Comments