AI researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic, citing concerns that leading AI companies are "gambling with our lives." Anthropic's alignment lead then shared Coxon's post, writing "We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!" and estimating a ">10%" chance within the next decade.
On TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts discussed skepticism toward these AI doomer narratives. One host suggested companies might be using extinction warnings as "a weird way of flexing to show how far advanced their company's AI model is," particularly as companies prepare for IPOs. Another raised questions about how Anthropic might address these risks in its S-1 filing, asking if lawyers would need to rewrite sections to officially state the company's position on existential risk.
Podcast participants debated the significance of the language used, with some questioning who the "we" refers to and whether the specific percentage represents a meaningful estimate or is simply a made-up number thrown out for effect.