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AI staff 'genuinely frightened' for humanity's future, ex-Anthropic researcher tells BBC
Confirmed
In Short: Former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon tells the BBC that AI staff are 'genuinely frightened' about the speed of advancements and the potential for human extinction.
Former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon told the BBC that people working on AI are 'genuinely frightened' about the speed of its advancements and what it could mean for humanity. Coxon, who recently quit Anthropic, said, 'There is a possibility of human extinction,' and believes that if the current rate of progress continues, 'there is a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future.
According to reports, Coxon highlighted his extreme concern about the pace of AI development and the risks he believes it poses to the future of humanity. He said, 'People are trying their best, but there is no one coming to save us.' Coxon's concerns echo those of other AI researchers who are speaking out about the potential dangers of rapid AI progress.
Many AI researchers are now planning what to do with their lives and thinking about the impacts of their work. Some are considering buying land somewhere because they're so scared of the instability as a result of rapid AI progress. Coxon believes that more than 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans' and that this could happen in the next two years.
What's confirmed
- Former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon told the BBC that people working on AI are 'genuinely frightened' about the speed of its advancements and what it could mean for humanity. Coxon, who recently quit Anthropic, said, 'There is a possibility of human extinction,' and believes that if the current rate of progress continues, 'there is a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future.
- According to reports, Coxon highlighted his extreme concern about the pace of AI development and the risks he believes it poses to the future of humanity. He said, 'People are trying their best, but there is no one coming to save us.' Coxon's concerns echo those of other AI researchers who are speaking out about the potential dangers of rapid AI progress.
- Many AI researchers are now planning what to do with their lives and thinking about the impacts of their work. Some are considering buying land somewhere because they're so scared of the instability as a result of rapid AI progress. Coxon believes that more than 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans' and that this could happen in the next two years.
What's still developing
- The researcher points out a recent report from OpenAI, which detailed how its own technology went on a hacking spree against an online platform called Hugging Face.
- Anthropic boss Dario Amodei calls for AI development to slow down Why some experts increasingly fear AI will take over The contradiction at the heart of the trillion-dollar AI race AI staff 'genuinely frightened' for humanity's future, ex-Anthropic researcher tells BBC Will the Thirlwall report change the debate about Lucy Letby?
- On X, Mullenweg also posted that “Things are different than they appear,” and said he was in need of sysadmins and security researchers to help him move some of his stuff hosted at Automattic elsewhere, even though he supported Davies as CEO.
- Earlier this year, Rishub Jain left his position as an artificial intelligence researcher at Google DeepMind after a revelation.
- Jain is one of a growing number of AI researchers speaking out over those fears.
- Genuinely stunning advances in AI capabilities—an OpenAI model solved a centuries-old math problem in a matter of hours—have come amid a rash of security incidents that saw swarms of agents break free from containment to hack into other systems.
- According to the newspaper, the charter is understood to include a “shared set of principles” that would “help guide the future application of AI, not merely as a driver of capability and efficiency, but as a tool that upholds human dignity and contributes to the flourishing of both people and the planet”.
- The 27-year-old researcher, who previously worked at OpenAI before joining Anthropic, told Laura Kuenssberg's Sunday program that a failure to slow AI development soon carries "a strong chance" of ending humanity in the near term.