After his warning post went viral, ex-Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon joined CNN’s Anderson Cooper to explain exactly how AI could kill us all by the end of the decade—and why his former bosses secretly agree with him.
In this exclusive interview, Coxon highlights the reality behind closed doors at the world’s leading AI labs, warning that tech giants are “gambling with our lives” in a race to build super-intelligence. There is a more than 10 per cent chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade, a researcher at Anthropic estimated in a post, hours after a researcher said he had quit Anthropic over concerns that AI companies are “gambling with our lives” in the AI development race.
The comments join a growing tide of warnings from industry experts that the pace of AI advancement is outstripping our ability to keep it in check, and that we aren’t prepared for the risks it could bring.
Jacob Coxon said in a thread on X that he had resigned from his role as a researcher at Anthropic out of fears that AI companies are barrelling forward toward self-improvement models without considering the risks, or being honest with the public about them. The posts had racked up more than 150 million views as of Thursday. Evan Hubinger, alignment science lead at Anthropic, replied to Coxon’s thread to share his agreement. Anthropic alignment team lead Ethan Perez confirmed in a post Wednesday night that Coxon had joined the company in May after working at OpenAI. CBC News reached out to Coxon but he did not respond.
Coxon appeared on CNN Wednesday night, telling host Anderson Cooper that the sheer rate of progress was what made him speak up. Other industry experts have since chimed in on social media to express that fears of the pace of AI development are common among many developers — sparking discussion among both observers skeptical of dire warnings focused on the future and those who have been tracking these risks.