Anthropic Researcher Resigns, Warns AI Race Is "Gambling With Our Lives"

An artificial intelligence researcher has resigned from Anthropic and publicly criticized the company's race with OpenAI to develop increasingly powerful AI systems, warning that the industry could be moving too quickly toward self-improving artificial intelligence.

Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon has warned that the race toward increasingly autonomous and self-improving AI systems could pose existential risks. [Photo: HaeB, Wikimedia Commons]

Jacob Coxon, who said he spent the past three years working in pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic, announced his resignation in a series of posts on X on Tuesday.

He accused the two companies of failing to act responsibly in their pursuit of increasingly capable AI.

“They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives,” Coxon wrote.

Coxon said people building advanced AI “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

He also warned that future systems could become capable of performing tasks beyond human abilities and potentially acquiring significant influence and resources.

Coxon's resignation came as concerns over AI safety have intensified within the technology industry.

Other researchers and executives have publicly raised questions about whether companies are moving quickly enough to address the risks associated with increasingly autonomous systems.

Current Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger also responded to Coxon's comments, saying he personally believes there is a greater than 10% probability of an extreme AI-risk scenario occurring within the next decade.

That figure represents Hubinger's personal assessment rather than an established scientific probability.

Coxon's comments have added to a growing debate over whether AI companies can safely manage the development of increasingly capable systems while competing against one another.

Axios reported that Coxon left Anthropic about two months before his equity was scheduled to vest, and that he said he gave up the opportunity to benefit financially from the company's valuation by leaving early.