What’s behind the AI industry’s latest warnings of doom?
The AI industry is experiencing a heated debate regarding existential risks following a researcher's resignation from Anthropic due to safety concerns. Anthropic's alignment lead amplified these warnings by stating a belief that AI could kill all humans with a probability exceeding 10% within the next decade. TechCrunch hosts discussed the sincerity of these claims, questioning whether such dramatic statements serve as marketing tactics or genuine ethical standpoints ahead of potential IPOs.
- ▪AI researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic, citing concerns that leading AI companies are gambling with human lives.
- ▪Anthropic's alignment lead publicly stated that the company believes AI could kill all humans with a greater than 10% chance within the next decade.
- ▪TechCrunch hosts debated whether these apocalyptic warnings are sincere ethical stances or strategic moves to highlight model capabilities before going public.
- ▪The discussion took place on the Equity podcast, where hosts analyzed the timing of these warnings in relation to recent model releases and the Hugging Face hack.
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| Publication time | Sun, 13 Sep 2026 19:40:15 +0000 |
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Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify The AI industry seems to be having its loudest debate yet about whether its technology poses an existential threat to humanity. The current discussion began after AI researcher Jacob Coxon said that he’s resigned from Anthropic because he’s worried that the leading AI companies are “gambling with our lives.” Then Anthropic’s alignment leaned chimed in with a post declaring, “We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!” adding that he personally thinks the chance is “>10% within the next decade.” On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I discussed the latest apocalyptic warnings.
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