via wbaltv
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
That blunt admission from former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon made waves Tuesday, as the just-quit 27-year-old AI researcher spilled the beans on his way out the door in a resignation thread on X.
As alarming and serious as Coxon’s revelations sound (“These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources”), they’re also not new. Anthropic got its start in exactly this way, as OpenAI employees concerned about the company’s safety protocols left Sam Altman’s startup to launch their own AI company, arguing their approach was more responsible.
The concerns are becoming commonplace. A number of AI employees have loudly quit their companies over safety concerns over the past several months and years. Others have publicly voiced worries that the technology is moving too quickly and will one day outpace humans’ ability to control it.
In July, nearly 1,400 AI company employees signed an open letter urging the U.S. government to regulate the technology to rein in Big Tech and slow the pace of AI to ensure its safety. And two days ago, OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki warned that AI capabilities are advancing faster than researchers’ ability to reliably monitor and control them.