A former artificial intelligence researcher at OpenAI and Anthropic, Jacob Coxon has warned that the rapid development of advanced AI could pose an unprecedented threat to humanity.

Jacob Coxon, who said he spent the past three years conducting pre-training research at OpenAI and Anthropic, announced his resignation on X on Wednesday, accusing both companies of racing towards self-improving superintelligence without sufficient safeguards.

“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 said.

He warned against underestimating the capabilities of increasingly advanced AI systems, saying they could soon surpass humans in important areas and acquire significant power and resources.

“Do not underestimate the power of this technology. These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionise 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,” he said.

Coxon claimed that people working on advanced AI privately recognise the possibility of catastrophic consequences.

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“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 added.

Coxon’s concerns were subsequently backed by another Anthropic researcher, Evan Hubinger, who said he personally believed there was a greater than 10 per cent chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade.

“Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! 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,” he added.

Coxon’s resignation comes as leading AI companies continue to develop increasingly capable systems, while researchers and policymakers debate how to manage the potential risks associated with advanced artificial intelligence.

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