Last week was a code-red moment for artificial intelligence (AI), in which AI researchers voiced fresh fears of human extinction. The 27-year-old AI researcher Jacob Coxon, who previously worked at OpenAI and later moved to Anthropic, resigned from his job on September 9, 2026 and stated that AI researchers were genuinely frightened about the speed of its advancements and what it could mean for the future of humanity. He posted a seven-part thread on X announcing it: “I resigned from Anthropic today… Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” The thread reportedly drew nearly 76 million views overnight, amplified by a Wall Street Journal exclusive interview with him around the same time. An Alignment Science Lead at Anthropic, Evan Hubinger, publicly agreed with him.
A few days later, on September 12, 2026, Anthropic head Dario Amodei, posted an essay titled “We Must Pace the Frontier,” in which he argued for AI development to slow down, and suggested embedding evaluators in AI companies and establishing a speed limit on self-improvement of AI systems.
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