A researcher who worked for both OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) and Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) says the companies are "gambling with our lives," prompting him to resign and leave the industry.
"Do not underestimate the power of this technology," Jacob Coxon wrote in a widely shared thread on Tuesday evening. "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, who said he resigned from Anthropic this week, said the threat is coming from inside the house.
"The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible — but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger," he wrote.
Anthropic and OpenAI are arguably the two frontrunners in the furious race to develop and scale artificial intelligence. Both are set to go public at massive valuations as markets continue to bet heavily on the technology's potential, despite a historic debt run-up across the industry.