What’s old is always new again.
That phrase has been turning over in my head, after AI researcher Jacob Coxon’s bombshell resignation from Anthropic. Coxon, who’s also worked at OpenAI,
posted on X in striking language and in no uncertain terms: He believes AI is dooming us all.
“Do not underestimate the power of this technology,” one of his posts reads. “These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize 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.”
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade,” the next thread begins. “This is not a marketing stunt.”
I had a mixed reaction to Coxon’s apocalyptic and contested claim: On one hand, I had the nagging sense I’ve heard something like this before: Back in 2022, when Google researcher Blake Lemoine resigned, he said that LaMDA had achieved sentience. It was a sizable story at the time, but it was still very early days for the AI boom. And it was a big story. But this also feels different. I think in part, it’s because of something
my colleague Emily Forlini pointed out:
While Coxon is far from the first to warn about the perils of AI, his message might be the first to truly break into the mainstream. He promptly went on a media tour the same day he posted on X, and his message captured headlines at top news organizations. Even country singer Sheryl Crow urged her Instagram followers to take him seriously.There are a few theories as to why Coxon’s post has spread further than previous warnings about AI. As my editor Jeremy Kahn and I discussed earlier today, anxiety about AI has reached all-time highs following recent revelations about OpenAI’s AI agents escaping their sandbox and hacking the Hugging Face website. That incident provided a tangible example of how AI can go rogue and do things that would be considered a crime if a human were involved. The public may also be more ready to hear the message right now, at a time of growing concerns about energy-sucking AI data centers and about AI’s future impact on jobs.So while what’s old is always new again, there is something that’s new this time: People are far more afraid, and that fear has momentum. Anthropic and OpenAI are both on the path to IPOs, which means these fears will continuously be heavily tested in the court of public opinion—and eventually, in the public markets.
Update… Since I wrote this on Friday,
Sam Altman told Fortune’s Alyson Shontell that OpenAI would not be pursuing an IPO in 2026 over AI safety concerns, and
Anthropic’s Dario Amodei publicly called for “pacing at the frontier.” More this week.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinksEmail: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.comSubmit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter
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