AI researcher Jacob Coxon says he quit Anthropic after four months, two months before his equity would have vested; he still has equity in prior employer OpenAI

Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quit his job due to concerns about the safety of AI two months before his equity would have vested, he told Axios.

Axios 2026-09-10 Madison Mills

Context & Ripple Effects

Coxon’s departure puts a personal compensation cost behind the safety concerns he raised in a call for industry-wide coordination on recursive self-improvement. It also revives a labor-governance fault line for frontier labs: 2024 reporting documented OpenAI exit terms tied to vested equity, while OpenAI reportedly ended its six-month vesting cliff in 2025.

First-order effects

Anthropic loses Coxon after only four months, while his choice to leave two months before vesting makes the trade-off between safety dissent and employee compensation unusually explicit.
Coxon retains equity from OpenAI, so his exit from Anthropic does not fully sever his financial connection to another frontier-model developer.

Second-order effects

Anthropic and OpenAI face more scrutiny of whether vesting schedules and offboarding terms allow researchers to raise safety objections without bearing disproportionate financial penalties.
Recruiters at frontier labs must contend with a more visible credibility test: safety-focused candidates can weigh stated governance commitments against the experience of researchers who leave on principle.

Third-order effects

If similar departures persist, frontier-AI governance will be judged not only by published safety policies but by whether institutional incentives retain and protect internal critics.
The pressure for coordinated limits articulated by Coxon shifts the debate from individual lab conduct toward cross-company and international governance mechanisms.

The trend: Frontier AI is entering a phase in which talent incentives, employee voice, and safety governance are becoming inseparable measures of institutional credibility.

Discussion

@hilbertspaess Jacob Coxon on x
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. More thoughts below.
@saprmarks Samuel Marks on x
[Writing this in a personal capacity, not on behalf of my employer (Anthropic).] Jacob's thread is very worth reading. Here's my birds-eye view of the situation with risks from AI: 1. AI developers believe their technology could cause human extinction (or similarly bad outcomes).…
@buccocapital @buccocapital on x
“Hey Dario, congrats again on the great quarter. Nice to see the Enterprise re-acceleration. Hoping you could provide a little color on that 10% extinction # and some of the puts and takes that might have on further enterprise adoption. And then just a quick follow-up after”
@ethanjperez Ethan Perez on x
Jacob was a senior researcher who joined Anthropic in May. My Anthropic colleagues and I had been trying to recruit him for ~2 years, because we knew he was a strong researcher at OpenAI. Before he left, I pitched him to stay and join my team, and I was sad he decided to leave, a…
@willdepue Will Depue on x
I've known Jacob Coxon for the last three years, having started at OpenAI at the same time. I consider him a deeply thoughtful and measured individual, and also absolute chiller of a guy. I respect his decision to resign from Anthropic, at great financial cost, for his beliefs.
@theo @theo on x
I understand why people are concerned with Jacob's tweets but I cannot fathom how anyone would say that he is faking it or doing it for clout or that it's some type of psyop. It's incredibly clear reading this that Jacob believes the things he is saying. He is very well regarded …
@andymasley Andy Masley on x
The people who believe in AI risk at major companies see everyone as locked into competition over it with other labs, because the AI risk worldview also implies that AI will be wildly valuable, because it's wildly capable, so a lot of companies will pursue it and become powerful.…
@jason @jason on x
The time between the “we're all going to die!!!
@deryatr_ Derya Unutmaz on x
This is an extraordinarily important investigation and report into an incredibly sophisticated and well-funded anti-AI operation that blew up yesterday by an ex-Anthrophic employee, then amplified by another current Anthropic employee and other well-known characters. Make no mist…
@peterjhasson Peter J. Hasson on x
This was such a smart question from @BretBaier tonight: “Did you work with any third parties as far as this whistleblowing and coming out?” Jacob Coxon: “Not at all.
@rosiecampbell Rosie Campbell on x
I'm seeing lots of dismissal of Evan and Jacob as being insincere or having ulterior motives. I read about the extinction risks of AI in 2017 and was so alarmed I pivoted my career and moved to the US to work on AI safety. I worked at OpenAI for 3.5 years. I know many of these re…
@levyantoine Antoine Levy on x
OpenAI employees tell you they expect we may all die within a few years. They still put in about 70 million (for between 800 and 2000 contributors) in additional contributions to their 401k plan in 2025, so some of them must expect to make it to retirement!
@darrenpjones Darren Jones MP on x
If this level of risk is true, at least the AI labs will say: “I told you so”. But what are our governments doing in response to these warnings? We shouldn't stop innovation but we do need to do it in a regulated, safety first way. G7? G20? UN? Are you listening?
@timobrien Tim O'Brien on bluesky
Maybe we need to focus on this: “Coxon is one of now several people who have seen AI's peak capabilities up close — and are warning that what they saw could end humanity as we know it.” — www.axios.com/2026/09/09/a...
NewsMax.com Solange Reyner on x
Anthropic Researcher Quits, Says AI Industry ‘Gambling With Our Lives’
@hilbertspaess Jacob Coxon on x
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 pri…
@reploritrahan Lori Trahan on x
The call is coming from inside the house. Safety researchers are resigning, powerful AI models are breaking out of their labs, and companies are racing ahead anyway. It's past time for Congress to get off the sidelines and do its job. We can start with my bipartisan FRONTIER
@hilbertspaess Jacob Coxon on x
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.
@realpeteyb123 Peter B on x
I have the gift of spectacular pattern recognition. Let me share with you. This post is part of a psyop.
@timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x
@ParkerThayer Reminds me of the Abundance movement suddenly showing up on the scene with a well choreographed simultaneous entrance by dozens of big tech lobbyists, all trying to appear spontaneous and organic.
@andymasley Andy Masley on x
I'm in said insidious funding network so take this with a grain of salt, but: 1) The accounts who retweeted Coxon's post are all AI safety people who follow each other and think it's a huge deal when a lab employee walks away from a massive salary, as would the WSJ. If one retwee…
@chrismurphyct Chris Murphy on x
If you read anything today, read this. And remember, the problem he articulates - AI companies in a blind race to build a death machine first - can easily be solved. Through a regulatory system that allows the research to continue, but in a way that doesn't destroy us.
@rondesantis Ron DeSantis on x
While some AI hysterics is aimed towards investors in advance of upcoming IPOs, that there is even a possibility that these technologies would elude human control is alarming. Technology should enhance the human experience; it should never supplant it!
@clementdelangue Clem on x
If they truly believe the risk is that high, and I think they do, then we need 100x more research and understanding of it. That requires them to openly share their models, datasets, training code, and agent traces. A risk to all humanity cannot be studied and controlled behind cl…
@gabriel1 Gabriel on x
thought of this as posts like this just came out which might change trajectory of things and would be fitting to the timeline https://x.com/...
@joannastern Joanna Stern on x
Since my whole timeline is currently “AI is going to kill us,” I say we drink to new iPhones and fun keynotes.
@paularambles @paularambles on x
so we're doing conspiracy theories now when the truth is probably much simpler: this guy got disillusioned with openai after three years, joined anthropic because he thought they were the good guys, then lasted six weeks before realizing they were racing toward the same endgame
@conorsen Conor Sen on x
Pretty incredible 24 hours for the influence of this platform: [image]
@boringbiz_ @boringbiz_ on x
Extremely dystopian and worrisome thread. Recommend giving it a read. https://x.com/...
@andymasley Andy Masley on x
We've crossed a line in AI safety where I think it's completely ridiculous that so many people are commenting on/sneering at the idea who haven't actually bothered to just take some time to walk through the arguments themselves. You can reject them or ignore them, but too many sm…
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
working at a leading AI company as a communications professional is like playing a dark souls game make it to the end and receive an embarrassment of riches but on any given day you may wake up to an employee tweet that has a 90 percent chance of ruining your life
@buccocapital @buccocapital on x
“Uhh, so, yeah...we have to add one more risk factor to the S-1. You're not gonna like it.”
r/collapse r on reddit
An Anthropic researcher just quit, saying OpenAI and Anthropic are ‘gambling with our lives’
r/PoliticalOptimism r on reddit
Experts weigh in as researcher says AI has more than 10% chance of ‘killing all humans’
r/Destiny r on reddit
Fine AI is bad and could kill us all, what do you want me to say?
@typesfast Ryan Petersen on x
I need to buy more stock in this company. I've never seen such a commitment to making money regardless of the consequences.
@berniesanders Bernie Sanders on x
Mr. Coxon is right. The very people building this technology admit that it could threaten the future of humanity. That is why I will soon be introducing legislation to ban superintelligence and pause AI development.
@evanhub Evan Hubinger on x
To be clear, as we say in our latest Risk Report ( https://x.com/...), I think the risk from present models is low. What I am worried about is superintelligence arising from recursive self-improvement, as we have said is happening faster than we thought (https://x.com/...).
@boazbaraktcs Boaz Barak on x
Whether or not you agree with @hilbertspaess, you have to respect Anthropic employees that are supporting him like this.
@garymarcus Gary Marcus on x
Incredible how people are making up different numbers of weeks/months for how long Coxon worked at Anthropic to assassinate his character. The only credible source (@MadisonMills22 @axios who spoke with him directly, and fact-checked her work) reports 4 months; multiple people, l…
@vanessaselbst Vanessa Selbst on x
Pretty amazing that Anthropic employees are commending this persons decision to speak out when it obviously hurts their bottom line. I think it really underscores how serious they think these risks are.
@altcap Brad Gerstner on x
Ridiculous hyperbole from an ex junior employee who worked a total of 6 weeks at Anthropic now cause for regulatory intervention? No thx. 😂🧐
@micahcarroll Micah Carroll on x
This is not a setup or some political psyop. I had many lunches and dinners with Jacob at OpenAI in which we talked about AI existential risks in similar terms. It's a cross-partisan position within misalignment teams across all frontier AI companies that business-as-usual AI dev…
@darrenpjones Darren Jones MP on x
I've never thought we should ban innovation or scientific endeavour but it's clear we need a new multinational treaty for the safe and regulated development of superintelligence. I've written to @antonioguterres @MathiasCormann and @andyburnham to ask that the UN, OECD and G7/G20…
@w01fe Jason Wolfe on x
I don't know what my probabilities are on literal extinction, but I think there are a number of ways AI could go poorly for humanity, and at the current frankly terrifying pace humanity will be quite lucky if we manage to find and stay on the narrow path between all the bad outco…
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
Surely Anthropic's IPO must be paused until the claims of this “whistleblower” can be investigated.
@a_nnawang Anna Wang on x
I worked at Google DeepMind and now at Anthropic. This is a common sentiment amongst my peers. (I write this in personal capacity.) There is not yet a viable scientific plan to solve risks from recursively self-improving AI. Please look up!
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
I think some Safety people perceive Anthropic to be more responsible than OpenAI. And I think a lot of people with the opposing view find Anthropic to be much worse. But just as a total outsider, their rhetoric and style of business seem pretty really similar to me.
@willdepue Will Depue on x
@wallstengine He was at OpenAI for the last 3 years before that, in the same role.
@highyieldharry @highyieldharry on x
If you work at Anthropic, in whatever capacity, and announce publicly that the chance of AI killing all humans is 10%+ then that's officially a corporate communication. There's a reason why individuals in other industries don't speak for their firms. But more pressingly, this bel…
@jason @jason on x
If Anthropic released the iPhone
@grapesmoker @grapesmoker on x
like what are you supposed to say here. if I thought my job had a 10% chance of causing mass death or extinction I simply would not do it, I would get a different job. maybe you guys should take a moment to think this through
@mattwalshblog Matt Walsh on x
People who work in these companies have repeatedly told us that the products they're creating could present a catastrophic threat to the human race, and yet our government is doing essentially nothing at all to respond to this threat. This may prove to be the most disastrous
@garymarcus Gary Marcus on x
Cal Newport's take (not so different from mine). It's not OK to say yeah we might kill billions of people and then just go about your business. https://calnewport.com/...
@eeeeiluj Julie Steele on x
I work at OpenAI. In my personal capacity, I also think we need to slow down.
@mazmhussain Murtaza Hussain on x
I'm amazed people are against building data centers to support AI when the best case scenario is it takes everyone's jobs and consolidates all wealth in a tiny oligarchy and the non-negligible worst case is “killing all humans.”
@tvietor08 Tommy Vietor on x
And yet the US government is completely asleep at the switch here
@nic_carter Nic Carter on x
I believe that Anthropic people believe this. They think only they can build the Aligned Machine God. They believe they are uniquely moral, and only they will be able to Align the Machine God to what is Just and Right. This is what they actually think. They're not cynically telli…
@venturetwins Justine Moore on x
Anthropic employees
@robertskmiles Rob Miles on x
It's great to have Jacob's “AI is >10% to kill us and I'm quitting” at the same time as Evan's “AI is >10% to kill us and I'm staying”, so we get to see all of the “If you really believed that, you'd stay” cope and the “If you really believed that, you'd quit
@dan_jeffries1 Daniel Jeffries on x
Not only I am tired of these wild AI speculations of impeding doom from self important people: I resent them. I actively resent people proposing to crash the economy or proposing authoritarian control over my life and other people's lives with idiotic and dangerous ideas like chi…
@venturetwins Justine Moore on x
OpenAI: “We've solved math” Anthropic: “Our AI is so powerful it's going to kill you” Google: “Introducing Gemini 3.9 Flash! It's 30% faster and 15% worse than the last Gemini”
@firstadopter Tae Kim on x
I don't believe this. But if Evan believes this, he should resign right now. Saying this weeks ahead of a trillion dollar IPO is incredible. You also just handed AI's opponents including disingenuous politicians everywhere the fodder to do real damage against the infrastructure b…
@ggreenwald Glenn Greenwald on x
I know that Mike Johnson decided that the House needs a new vacation before the midterms and Trump is focused on naming various lakes and oceans after himself, but it does seem like this is something that deserves that US Government's full attention kind of immediately:
@chamath Chamath Palihapitiya on x
Gurley from the top rope... As we've stated many times before, I think the appropriate reaction here is to calm down and carry on. Things will be amazing, let's get there together.
@kimmonismus @kimmonismus on x
We need to talk about this. Anthropic employees believe there is a realistic chance that AI will wipe out humanity, greater than 10%. “Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade.
@parkerthayer Parker Thayer on x
This post looks like the start of a VERY sophisticated and well-funded PR operation to get support for Democrats to regulate AI into oblivion. Let me show you how it works: 1.) This guy, with minimal followers and no previous account activity, goes to the Wall Street Journal whic…
@natolambert Nathan Lambert on x
This being viewed ~100M times is really remarkable and imo net bad. I take AI safety seriously and think we have a lot of challenges ahead, but am still waiting for evidence that supports anything close to a 10% chance of human extinction. Without it, it is fearmongering.
@jasminewsun Jasmine Sun on x
I hear roughly 3 reasons people keep working at AI labs despite believing in ~10% extinction risk: 1) Techno-determinism: Someone will build ASI no matter what, and I can do it better & more safely than China/OpenAI/etc 2) Consequentialism: ASI might kill us, but it also might pr…
@repcasar Congressman Greg Casar on x
An Anthropic researcher just quit, warning they're racing to superintelligence. An employee still there agreed, and put the odds of AI killing all humans above 10%. This is an emergency. Congress must convene hearings and pass my and Bernie's superintelligence ban.
@repdeluzio Congressman Chris Deluzio on x
For those still burying their heads in the sand about the risks of superintelligence to humanity: wake up! We need to pump the brakes and get national action on superintelligence. This is an emergency and our government should act like it.
@bachmannrudi Rudi Bachmann on x
If this was even remotely true, a functioning society would lock people up in the highest security prisons who work on a technology that could lead to the complete eradication of all humans with these odds. This is insane.
@jstein_sun Jeff Stein on x
Maybe we can get a Nate Silver style needle to track odds of human extinction
@lessin @lessin on x
Usually the teams at leading companies are the most optimistic about the future... not the least optimistic. we live in interesting times.
@dieworkwear Derek Guy on x
imagine being a menswear writer and having to go back to writing about this fall's best socks after reading anthropic employees say AI might destroy humanity in a few years
@jessesingal Jesse Singal on x
1/This is extremely conspiratorial.
@nikolaj2030 Nikola Jurkovic on x
This is a common view in the AI community. I place the probability around 50%.
@deredleritt3r Prinz on x
Without wading into allegations about specific people mentioned in this post, I will note the following: 1. Researcher leaving frontier lab is really “dog bites man
@mollykinder Molly Kinder on x
This a.m., I walked my two youngest kids (ages 7 and 4) to school. I held their little hands as we crossed streets, and gave my youngest a giant hug at his PreK4 classroom door. Then, after walking a block towards home, I opened this app to a terrifying stream of tweets. Of cours…
@kelseytuoc Kelsey Piper on x
@TrevMcKendrick I would expect that he definitely reached out to journalists and to other ex-lab employees in order to get articles written about his decision to resign. This seems like a super obvious thing to do if you want to resign and whistleblow.
@sriramk Sriram Krishnan on x
People often think these posts come from researchers who don't truly believe them. I disagree, that's not been my experience with Ant or OAI or any other researcher at or near the frontier. I find them to be intellectually honest in terms of believing what they say. However I don…
@edzitron Ed Zitron on x
AI* has a >10%** chance to kill us all *not the AI we're working on but some other AI that we'll build for sure if you keep funding the company I work at **number I made up based on a still-theoretical technology that nobody has but we all love talking about
@senmarkkelly Senator Mark Kelly on x
AI is moving fast and we need to act now. Almost a year ago, I released AI for America because I believe we need to be proactive on AI, both harnessing its potential so it benefits working people and protecting against the worst outcomes it could lead to. The reality is that th…
@noahpinion Noah Smith on x
How did it take this long for the public to realize that AI lab people think their product is going to slaughter the human race? Sam Altman was talking about his bunker a decade ago, and Dario yells about it constantly.
@sc_cath Sylvain Catherine on x
I do not know how Anthropic or OpenAI employees come up with these apocalypse probabilities but the risks are not worth taking, even if they were off by an order of magnitude.
@yashar Yashar Ali on x
Earlier today, AI researcher Jacob Coxon, who spent the past three years working at OpenAI and Anthropic, publicly resigned from Anthropic, warning that both companies are racing toward superintelligence and “gambling with our lives.
@edzitron Ed Zitron on x
This guy worked at Anthropic for six weeks! He worked at OpenAI years before that! He won't even explain what it is he's scared of outside of some vague assertion about recursive self improvement, which is still theoretical! This is “something big is happening” all over again
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
One of the biggest stock market bonanzas in history is being driven by an industry in which several of its own employees and leading lights think that what's being built could cause complete human extinction.
@madisonmills22 Madison Mills on x
@813Strategies I'm told well into six figures
@growing_daniel Daniel on x
Legitimately the funniest company ever
@jillgun Jill Gunter on x
Lowkey unhinged to tweet ahead of IPO
@paularambles @paularambles on x
whoever's in charge of comms at anthropic
@chrisvanhollen Senator Chris Van Hollen on x
Anyone still denying the risks posed by unregulated AI should read this thread.  It's time to pump the brakes & take action NOW. We need: - Mandatory safeguards - A comprehensive testing regime - Urgent dialogue with China, before & during President Xi's visit to DC this month
@howardlindzon Howard Lindzon on x
should be good for semiconductor stocks ... the good news is I never have to cut my toenails again
@repbillfoster Congressman Bill Foster on x
Anyone who has read METR's Technical Report on the OpenAI/Hugging Face incident will understand that software-only controls will not be sufficient to contain superhuman AI. Any continuing work on adversarial superhuman intelligence must rely on the physical containment methods us…
@juliarturc Julia Turc on x
> Intention: Signal status and morality. > Reality: Admits they're bad at their job and makes employer look evil. > Impact: Zero. There's not one actionable thing I can do after reading this, even if I were to believe it.
@martin_casado @martin_casado on x
I worked on an actual thermonuclear weapons project, and the dissonance was less bizarre.
@mattyglesias Matthew Yglesias on x
A staffer at Anthropic, known to be the most safety-pilled of the AI companies, resigned dramatically citing safety concerns. This was picked up by some AI safety accounts who follow each other, and thanks to Huggingface mainstream politics people are now talking about this.
@jeninyounesesq Jenin Younes on x
Call me crazy, but I actually don't think tech companies should be able to risk the future of humanity in pursuit of their own profit. This is the alignment science lead at Anthropic saying he estimates the chances of AI killing all humans within the next decade is over 10 percen…
@packym Packy McCormick on x
LeBron was at like 9% to come to the Sixers.
@vu0tran Vu Tran on x
If OpenAI wanted to cripple an entire nation, they easily could today. All they'd have to do is remove alignment and unleash an agent swarm. It could probably within a day or so get access to all of the nations data centers and shut off all the country's utilities. Like, we ar…
@bubbleboi Bubble Boi on x
I don't see how Dario doesn't fire this guy in the next 24 hours for saying something like this. Terrible terrible optics for a company doing an IPO, it might even derail it if more people come out saying stuff like this.
@taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on x
This sort of sanctimonious doomer posting is so infuriating. You are fomenting terror among the public about a new technology which will be directly channeled into passing the worst laws imaginable. For what, likes on twitter? Spare us all please
@thezvi Zvi Mowshowitz on x
My model of this is that there was already a preference cascade in motion, as in I had a section in the weekly called ‘preference cascade at OpenAI,’ in the wake up HF and Pacing and An Alien Mind and Astra-2 etc. Coxon got to provide the tipping point.
@richarddeitsch Richard Deitsch on x
It is very interesting and I am grateful for that. I think his first post provides some of the answer. As E.B. White always suggested — clarity in writing. There is zero clutter here in the post. Each of these initial sentences offer authenticity (he worked there) and clarity (di…
@micsolana Mike Solana on x
does anthropic have a social media policy or is this the policy bc holy shit
@pattymurray Senator Patty Murray on x
If we are smart enough to create such powerful AI, then we are smart enough to regulate it. America can meet the moment, but the clock is ticking. Congress needs to step up and move NOW to protect American lives and safeguard our future.
@repluna Rep. Anna Paulina Luna on x
Congress needs to convene a special session on AI and what the future of the U.S. looks like. There are very real impacts to society as we know it. Partisan politics aside, there are massive implications of a race towards super intelligence. This is not a doomer post, as some of …
@beffjezos @beffjezos on x
It's a Psyop. Dems and EAs teaming up to convince you they should be the only ones to control AI, in a messed up merge of govt and private lab. This is an attempt at forming an overcentralized singleton ASI trying to convince you to give it absolute power.
@natpurser Nat Purser on x
i've gotten 5 emails in the past week from technical, non-policy people who wanted to learn how they could get involved in ai safety. my timeline has felt very “constant, fever pitch ai anxiety
@danielsusskind Daniel Susskind on x
I struggle to believe this is real. The giddy sense of excitement on public display here — “earnestly”, “!”, “>10%” — is childish and entirely unbecoming of the challenge.
@jason @jason on x
What is going on here @moskov @DarioAmodei? Are you guys running some kind of regulatory capture playbook, or does everyone who works at @AnthropicAI see something that makes their pdoom surge?! Would be great to get some authentic feedback on the sustained
@bscholl Blake Scholl on x
AI isn't going to wipe out humans. But AI doomers have a shot at hamstringing the most incredible advancement for humanity since the steam engine. We can't let that happen.
@ravimgupta Ravi Gupta on x
Question for fellow civilians. If these warnings are true and we are in fact fucked, what are we normal people to do? Buy a house in the mountains and arm ourselves? Pull our money from banks and stash cash? Farm our own food? Seriously, all theories are welcome. No bad ideas in …
@matthewberman Matthew Berman on x
Anthropic's alignment science lead thinks AI has a greater than 10% chance to kill all humans within 10 years. Ok I'm going to go play with my kids now.
@pewilliams_ Paul E Williams on x
The Senate committee responsible for commerce and technology policy has zero hearings on AI scheduled for the next 4 months. The committee's top priority is, instead, the Protect College Sports Act.
@hadas_gold Hadas Gold on x
Anthropic statement re the last 24 hours:
@eggerdc Andrew Egger on x
I do think a big part of it is that “guy quits lab while blowing whistle” cuts directly against the typical pooh-poohing argument of “the labs are just saying this to build brand sizzle”
@kelseytuoc Kelsey Piper on x
the fact an Anthropic employee quitting and saying “I think what we're doing is dangerous and not worth it” reached so many people should be a cause for reflection for other Anthropic employees, some of whom seem to think things are dire but there's no way quitting could help.
@francomunizar Franco on x
the world when it's my turn to be an adult:
@natolambert Nathan Lambert on x
It's a common agreement among my friends not at OpenAI/Anthropic that people at the labs operate with a religious energy (Ant especially). It manifests very out of touch interactions, which carries into public comms here (e.g the recent quitting). Company cultures create this.
@chetanp Chetan Puttagunta on x
Anthropic's claims are getting more outlandish as the IPO approaches: We will destroy the majority of jobs We will destroy the majority of companies Now: We might kill all humans (!!) Next: We might eat the universe??
@databasedbets @databasedbets on x
To put this in more reassuring terms, senior Anthropic staff think the chance AI kills all humans within the next decade is approximately the chance the New York Jets make the playoffs
@dhruv_rathee Dhruv Rathee on x
I personally don't think this is true But if this is true, then these people should go and burn down their headquarters and data centers. And do not use China argument for fear mongering. China is arguably doing way more to fight against climate change than USA so I'm sure they w…
@toly @toly on x
Dude was there for 4 months?
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
living out west and hearing this forever, i didnt really flinch when i saw this pop yesterday but things feel different lately. vibe shift gone global. normie friends texting me asking “are we really gonna die” i guess i shouldnt be so surprised this blew up.
@madisonmills22 Madison Mills on x
Scoop: Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon tells me he gave up his equity when he resigned due to concerns about AI safety. More from our conversation, including his perception of Anthropic's “paranoia” here: https://www.axios.com/...
@naderlikeladder Nader Khalil on x
If you publicly assign a >10% probability to human extinction within a decade, you owe people a clear explanation of how you reached that number + what would change your mind. I'm disappointed in all the fear-mongering. This tech wave needs adult chaperones.
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
It's amazing the conspiracy theories that people come up with to explain why things blow up. We've had years of internet moral panics and witch hunts and things just generally going viral. It's not some big mystery why so many people have an itchy finger with the RT button.
@vikramchandra Vikram Chandra on x
This from the head of alignment at Anthrophic! 99.9% of humans are either unaware or not bothered about it. 😨
@ccatalini Christian Catalini on x
I meant more companies, not zero!
@clary_co Christopher Clary on x
I work on the politics of nuclear weapons because I think they are more important & dangerous than commonly understood. Yet at no point in my 25+ year career have I ever thought that the probability of human extinction from nuclear use is greater than 0.01%. So these types of AI …
@robertgraham Robert Graham on x
The following tweet is a good “normie” discussion of AI doomerism issues. I am a “techie” and “finance
@willmanidis Will Manidis on x
pray for the kirkland associate trying to figure out how to sneak this into the risk factors of the s-1
@vijayshekhar Vijay Shekhar Sharma on x
Non Elon 85 Mn impression tweet. X: platform for ultimate direct reach !
@m_adams Michael Adams on x
So far, at least 22 politicians responded directly to this tweet with calls for legislation to regulate AI: 2 governors, 7 senators, and 13 representatives. Highly partisan - all democrats except for three. Here's the full list: - Governor, IL (JB Pritzker - D) https://x.com/... …
Craig Foster AM Craig Foster AM on linkedin
‘Artificial intelligence could kill off humanity within the decade, according to three researchers with the industry giant, one of whom has quit his job in protest.’ …
Rebecca Bellan Rebecca Bellan on linkedin
An Anthropic researcher has resigned over fears that unrestrained development of self-improving AI models will end up killing us all. …
@nigelfletcher Dr Nigel Fletcher on bluesky
I remain utterly bemused at the casual nonchalance with which so many people are cheerfully embracing tech products from companies whose reckless disregard for our safety could literally kill us all. — It's completely mad. — www.theguardian.com/technology/ 2...
@ezralevin Ezra Levin on bluesky
Not to get all radical, but at an extremely basic level isn't it the government's job to protect its people? If someone announced they were creating a really cool toy that might kill hundreds of millions of people, shouldn't government step in and, like, stop them? www.bbc.com/n…
@bluntrochester.senate … Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester on bluesky
Even if there was a 1% chance AI could wipe out human life, we should be pumping the brakes to make sure we have the proper safeguards in place, not racing blindly into disaster. — It's time for Congress to step in and find the balance between safety and innovation, before it's…
@douglasmack Doug Mack on bluesky
look, i am personally not super concerned about this scenario but i do think ai is generally terrible for a thousand other reasons, and if industry insiders are this alarmed, *maybe the whole industry shut down for a while/forever*
r/TrueReddit r on reddit
The AI Researcher Who Just Quit Anthropic Says It's ‘Crunch Time for Humanity’
r/PrepperIntel r on reddit
Anthropic researcher believes more than 10% chance AI ‘could kill all humans’
r/BetterOffline r on reddit
Does anyone else think the news about the former anthropic engineer is manufactured hype?
@garymarcus Gary Marcus on x
read the whole thread. although i don't 100% agree with certain bits it is compelling and informed from the inside perspective that definitely deserves to be heard.
@clementdelangue Clem on x
If they truly believe the risk is that high, and I think they do, then we need 100x more research and understanding of it. That requires them to openly share their models, datasets, training code, and agent traces.
@openai @openai on x
Paul Christiano, founder of the Alignment Research Center, is joining the OpenAI Foundation Board and its Safety and Security Committee, which provides governance over the safety and security practices across OpenAI. As AI capabilities advance, strong safety, security, alignment,…
@sama Sam Altman on x
Welcome, Paul. Grateful you are doing this, and all you have done for AI safety. Excited to work together again.
@deanwball Dean W. Ball on x
Paul is an exceptionally gifted researcher and a man of integrity. I'm delighted by this news; there is no better person for the moment.
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
Paul is one of the ~3 most credible AI safety experts in the world. Co-invented RLHF, served at US CAISI, a real OG in LessWrong x-risk circles. (His early debates with Eliezer Yudkowsky are famous among the safety crowd and people still cite his “What Failure Looks Like
@johnschulman2 John Schulman on x
Pleasant surprise to see this. Paul is visionary and principled, and I've admired his work for over a decade
@zicokolter Zico Kolter on x
I am thrilled to have @paulfchristiano joining the OpenAI Foundation board and the Safety and Security Committee. Paul is a pioneer in AI Safety, Security, and Alignment, and I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with him here.
@ajs Alyson Shontell on x
OpenAI's new nonprofit board member:
@boazbaraktcs Boaz Barak on x
Paul joining the Safety and Security Committee is excellent news for OpenAI and the industry. Can't think of a better choice, or of a time when the SSC's role was more important.
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
This strikes me as something theoretically important that I haven't seen much discourse about. That if we get RSI, then chips/electricity may no longer be a binding constraint, as the model is able to get more and more juice out of a fixed amount of infrastructure [image]
@hadas_gold Hadas Gold on x
Christiano helped lead CAISI (the small group w/in commerce that tests AI models), well respected in AI safety world
@merettm Jakub Pachocki on x
Very grateful that Paul is joining the OpenAI Foundation board. We have a lot to do.
@robbensinger Rob Bensinger on x
Paul Christiano, the foremost proponent of slow AI takeoff over the past decade, now believes that we're plausibly only “several months to several years” away from a fast takeoff (!!!!).
@hughbzhang Hugh Zhang on x
Paul was one of the first people to tell me they were worried about AI doom, over a decade ago now. I (foolishly) did not believe him then. But he was right the whole time. I am extremely heartened to hear this news.
@so8res Nate Soares on x
Paul has long been considered a counterweight to the MIRI view. At long last, we're broadly in agreement: there is a meaningful risk that rapid acceleration in AI capabilities leads to catastrophic and irreversible loss of control in the very near term; the danger is now acute.
@_nathancalvin Nathan Calvin on x
Wow, huge news - Paul Christiano is joining OpenAI's nonprofit board + safety and security committee (SSC), and is simultaneously warning explicitly that there is a “very near term” risk of “catastrophic and irreversible loss of control
@dwarkesh_sp Dwarkesh Patel on x
Aside from his other contributions, Paul has perhaps the best OG track record in the world for predicting the timeline and the nature of the AI takeoff: https://x.com/...
@enoreyes Eno Reyes on x
AI will be a real risk to many systems. But before that, sophisticated attempts at manufactured consent will be attempted by the major players. This topic is about to become extremely noisy and lots of money will go into convincing you of what the truth should be.
@jordanschachtel Jordan Schachtel on x
So Jacob Coxon, who dramatically resigned from Anthropic yesterday, worked there for a grand total of six weeks. He started with them in July. All of his socials appeared yest. It has all the signs of a highly coordinated op through doomer mega donors and the corporate media.
@admcrlsn Adam Carlson on x
Sam Altman essentially said the same thing in 2015 as Jacob Coxon (and others) said yesterday. So he must have been 100% in on said “very sophisticated and well-funded PR operation to get support from Democrats to regulate AI into oblivion,” right? It's all a long con, right?
@samfbiddle Sam Biddle on x
I don't think I've ever seen someone tweet that their job has a >10% chance of ending humanity
@ericnewcomer Eric Newcomer on x
Alignment Science lead at Anthropic
@rokhanna Ro Khanna on x
Anthropic's alignment lead says there's a 10% chance of AI causing human extinction. The problem is not just misuse, but lack of control. Bluntly, our government has been asleep and is out of touch. Here are 5 things we must do: ✅ Establish a federal agency like we have for nucle…
@garymarcus Gary Marcus on x
A significant fraction of humanity read this thread. Is anyone prepared to do something about it? Fretting doesn't count.
@geiger_capital @geiger_capital on x
*ANTHROPIC RESEARCHER JACOB COXON RESIGNED OVER AI SAFETY CONCERNS 2 MONTHS BEFORE HIS EQUITY VESTED Uhhh... we might actually be fucked.
@historyboomer Carl on x
My thoughts on AI doomerism... Obviously, I have no idea what's going to happen with AI, but as a normie who's doing his best to follow this story, I find these vibes-based dismissals annoying. Thayer's analysis is mostly based on “looks like.
@i_zzzzzz Brooks Otterlake on x
Rule number one of corporate comms is when an employee quits and says your product is too dangerous you heartily agree with them and give non negligible odds on near-term human extinction
@adamamcbride Adam McBride on x
These dudes were smart enough to negotiate a 6-month vesting cliff... ...and stupid enough to not stay.
@willmanidis Will Manidis on x
people I know to be highly credible are claiming that this post is highly credible
@sam_badawi Sam Badawi on x
Speaking of OpenAI, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quit over AI safety concerns just two months before his equity would have vested. Coxon says frontier AI is becoming harder to monitor and warned competitive pressure could eventually force labs to cut corners on safety.
@wallstengine @wallstengine on x
Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon gave up all his equity to quit over AI safety concerns, leaving after 4 months, just 2 months before vesting. “I no longer have anything to gain by juicing up Anthropic's valuation... I left before any of my equity vested,” he told Axios.
@dkthomp Derek Thompson on x
It's so interesting to me what narratives break through, and when, and why. Folks at and around the labs have been warning about AI risk for years. Constantly. Relentlessly. Many of them were warning about it long before they even worked at the labs. This gentleman quits Anthropi…
@govpritzker Governor JB Pritzker on x
It's time to sound the alarm - louder - on reining in Artificial Intelligence. It's becoming more clear the threat AI poses to humanity, so I'm calling for immediate action from the industry and Washington.
r/technology r on reddit
Anthropic whistleblower gave up his equity to leave the company
r/Anthropic r on reddit
The AI Researcher Who Just Quit Anthropic Says It's ‘Crunch Time for Humanity’
@tim Tim Bradshaw on x
“If we build superintelligence without more robust alignment I expect we will permanently lose control of it. If that happens then most people could die,” says new OpenAI board member 😬
@yonashav Yo Shavit on x
Paul joining the OpenAI board and SSC is great news in what has been a very dark couple of months for my expectations of the future. There is no one with a better track record than him on AI safety in the last decade. I hope OpenAI's SSC sets an appropriately serious bar for secu…
@wired @wired on x
AI researcher Jacob Coxon announced his resignation from Anthropic over safety fears on Tuesday in an X post that went viral and sent shock waves through Silicon Valley and beyond. Read our interview with Coxon. 👇 https://www.wired.com/...
@wired @wired on x
Jacob Coxon talks to WIRED about the “mini Manhattan project” inside Anthropic, the problem with alignment, and why AI labs have just a few years left to make their systems safe. https://www.wired.com/...
Maxwell Zeff Maxwell Zeff on linkedin
By now, you've probably heard about Jacob Coxon's viral resignation from Anthropic, warning that the AI race is putting our lives at risk. …
@katie-drummond Katie Drummond on bluesky
The great @mzeff.bsky.social has a fantastic interview with Jacob Coxon, who quit Anthropic and shared a massively viral X post about why: — www.wired.com/story/anthro...
@metacurity.com Cynthia Brumfield on bluesky
I am not anti-AI but I'm getting sick of reading this doomerism and worse writing about it mostly because no one is offering any specifics I can grasp about how the “endgame” will come about. [embedded post]
@skamille.themanagerswrath.com Camille Fournier on bluesky
I think there's an arrogance to assuming we're at the Manhattan project yet; I think we're at the era where alchemists became chemists, we're discovering mustard gas and fertilizer. Slow, painful, traumatic death, not quite nuclear Holocaust [embedded post]
@carlquintanilla Carl Quintanilla on bluesky
COXON: “.. The consensus is that the next year or two is crunch time for humanity. .. These are actually just literal quotes from my colleagues .. — .. From their perspective, this is when Anthropic and its competitors decide the fate of humanity. @wired.com — www.wired.com…
@brbarrett Brian Barrett on bluesky
WIRED spoke with the Anthropic engineer who very loudly quit over concerns about runaway AI. He thinks humanity has a “couple of years” to prepare. from @mzeff.bsky.social
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
If reading these tweets has filled you with existential dread and/or questions — such as “why are these people racing to build superhuman AI if they think it could kill us all?
@antoniogm Antonio García Martínez on x
As Von Neumann said about Oppenheimer's performative angst over the atomic bomb: “Some people profess guilt to claim credit for the sin.”
@mepfuller Matt Fuller on x
The people closest to AI are openly telling us there's a greater than 10% chance Artificial Intelligence will kill us all within a decade. Meanwhile, Congress is figuring out what ChatGPT is and can't even outlaw the use of AI in political ads. And Trump is shitposting AI pics.
@jbillinson Josh Billinson on x
clocking in for another day at the apocalypse factory. we can't stop working or someone else might do the apocalypse
@alltheyud Eliezer Yudkowsky on x
I think this is one of the best possible times for another Anthropic capabilities researcher to quit, very loudly and publicly. Remember, whatever leverage you think you're saving your powder about, it evaporates once Mythos 6 replaces you.
@antoniogm Antonio García Martínez on x
Anthropic comms in the Slack this morning:
@xriskology Dr. Émile P. Torres on x
This guy, who works at Anthropic, is saying out-loud that he's engaged in an activity that might kill me and my family. How do you think I'm supposed to feel? Should I call the cops on him? Which authorities do I report him to? I am not okay with being threatened like this.
@anniejacobsen Annie Jacobsen on x
As the author of BIOLOGICAL WAR: A SCENARIO, I will say the quiet part of this👇 out loud: If a “superhuman system that can hack anything” hacks a variety of BSL-3 + BSL-4 labs — or all 3,600+ of them— and what's inside gets released, it's goodbye humans.
@samstein Sam Stein on x
Concerning! We should do something about this. Maybe. Or we could rename the Great Lakes.
@repyassansari Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari on x
This is absolutely terrifying. Jacob Coxon and Evan Hubinger, top researchers at Anthropic and formerly OpenAI, said these companies are creating technology that could “kill us all by the end of the decade.
@skdh Sabine Hossenfelder on x
Physicists have a long history of inventing pseudoproblems just to then write papers about trying to solve them. I am sure AI can do that too... https://x.com/...
@afinetheorem Kevin A. Bryan on x
Underreported story: OAI and Anthropic + affiliated nonprofits spend *billions* on AI safety and tons of high-level staff signed the Pacing letter. The irresponsible ones are the *other* (esp. non-US) companies racing to release “sovereign” and open weights models. 1/2
@levie Aaron Levie on x
@buccocapital
@chamath Chamath Palihapitiya on x
@typesfast this was my reductive conclusion as well. this will be a $10T company...come hell or hi water...
@alistaircarns Al Carns on x
It has been a huge few weeks in AI, and it's time to sound the alarm... Anthropic launched Fable 5.1, their “safe
@eli_lifland Eli Lifland on x
Seeing so many people be shocked by this tweet is a good reminder of how little basic knowledge people have about the AI safety situation
@theo @theo on x
In other words, there's a ~90% chance we're fine
@bgurley Bill Gurley on x
I have a recommendation to help bring some sanity to this whole AI doomerism situation that is appropriately exploding today. If any reporter can get one of the “true believers
@emostaque Emad on x
On the flip slide there is a >10% chance that AI could save all humans by curing disease and aging in the next decade
@coan_henry Henry on x
I'm proposing a job at Anthropic called “Member of Communication Staff” The job is to just monitor a dashboard where you read all outgoing tweets by employees and if they say something that will freak people out, you get to delete the tweet. It will pay $100M/yr
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
People are overreacting to the number here. Among AI lab employees, a p(doom) of 10% is fairly optimistic.
@amandamarcotte Amanda Marcotte on bluesky
Anyway, the fact that hysteria over this well-timed quitting of a researcher ready no doubt for his next gig gets way more engagement than skepticism bolsters my point. — Cynical marketing, nothing more. — www.axios.com/2026/09/09/a...
r/technology r on reddit
Anthropic insiders warn AI could kill all humans
r/inthenews r on reddit
The AI Researcher Who Just Quit Anthropic Says It's ‘Crunch Time for Humanity’
r/USNEWS r on reddit
Anthropic researcher believes more than 10% chance AI ‘could kill all humans’
r/devBR r on reddit
SALVE GUYS. NÃO SOU DA AREA MAS VI ESSE POST NO X E QUERIA OPINIÃO DE QUEM ENTENDE UM POUCO
r/developersIndia r on reddit
Your opinion about this guy's experience working with Anthropic!!
r/antiai r on reddit
AI researcher quits Anthropic over safety fears
r/OpenAI r on reddit
Opinion | I Worked on Safety at OpenAI. This Is What It Should Do Now.
@evanhub Evan Hubinger on x
Anthropic's Alignment Science lead says there is a “>10%” chance AI could kill all humans within the next decade and is worried about recursive self-improvement
r/ClaudeAI r on reddit
Anthropic whistleblower gave up his equity to leave the company
@markriedl Mark Riedl on bluesky
Most people don't know this, but a company can simply choose not to release a defective product [embedded post]
Sebastian Flückiger Sebastian Flückiger on linkedin
“Big A.I. companies continue to develop technology they concede might cause human extinction — arguing that if they don't develop it, somebody else will.” …
@yashar Yashar Ali on x
Former OpenAI and Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who publicly resigned from Anthropic yesterday with a stark warning about AI safety, was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on his show this evening.
@v_maini Vishal Maini on x
I was on the communications & policy team at Google DeepMind from 2018 - 2022. When I first joined GDM, external communication about the possibility of human extinction was not permitted, by anyone, at any level of the organization. If asked about existential risk, researchers we…
r/claude r on reddit
Anthropic whistleblower gave up his equity to leave the company
Dylan Tweney Dylan Tweney on linkedin
“The consensus is that the next year or two is, like, crunch time for humanity. From their perspective, this is when Anthropic and its competitors decide the fate of humanity. …
Saanya Ojha Saanya Ojha on linkedin
As if we were running low on things to worry about, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quit this week with a bleak message …
Nathan Lambert Nathan Lambert on linkedin
Was spending too much time reading Tweets, so set out to write down why one resignation turned the embers of AI fear into a wildfire …
r/TheNewGeezers r on reddit
I Worked on Safety at OpenAI. This Is What It Should Do Now.
@karlbode.com Karl Bode on bluesky
one recurring theme in the coverage of this AI Anthropic doomsday newscycle is nobody actually has any REAL ideas of what to do — just a lot of ambiguous hand-waving in a country that's too corrupt to have working regulators, by a press that doesn't realize that's a central pil…
@whetmoser.com Whet Moser on bluesky
not trying to make fun of this guy because i think he's sincere and it's reasonable to float concerns about AI, but in this case the AI better have a survival strategy for not having people around to, like, fix the pipes in the data center www.wired.com/story/anthro... [image]

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