The events of the last 24 hours are stunning. And not in a good way. Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of tech, and it’s unfolding right now.
Here’s a start. Maybe you’ve already heard about the guy who resigned from OpenAI. He warned that the technology could kill everybody before the end of the decade.
He made this announcement just 20 hours ago:
Is this really true? Maybe Coxon is just a disgruntled employee. We need to find out what other insiders think.
As if in answer to this question, another AI scientist—Evan Hubinger at Anthropic—quickly moved to endorse Coxon’s concerns.
Then Alex Turner, who recently left Google, said the exact same thing.
Here’s what Anna Wang at Anthropic has to say.
Samuel Marks, a Harvard PhD who works at Anthropic, offered more details—but comes to the same conclusion.
Jason Wolfe at OpenAI is also worried.
Here’s what Jonathan Richard Schwarz, formerly with Google, has to say.
And, finally, here is what Jakub Pachocki the Chief Scientist at OpenAI, tells us:
Last month, in my article “Ten Brutally Honest Predictions on the Future of AI,” I said that the next phase of backlash would come from within the tech community itself. The last 24 hours will be remembered as the moment when this definitively happened—when an inside resistance cohered into an actual movement. I think it’s safe to say that this is not a passing interlude, but a drawing of future battle lines.
The AI fanboys are trying to defuse this situation. But their responses fall apart at the slightest touch. Consider the smear that this is just a PR campaign. Really? Others are hinting it could be a Chinese plot. Yeah, sure….
But the biggest lie is the claim that these people don’t know what they are talking about. The reality is that they understand this subject better than anybody.
What’s happening here is obvious—eight different people building this technology are afraid of what they’re seeing. But they don’t have the power individually to stop the insanity.
If this isn’t a call to action, I don’t know what is. Trillions of dollars are getting pumped into a runaway technology, and the public already hates it intensely. Now the people making it happen are warning it just might kill everybody.
This demands a response from the highest circles of power and authority. If that doesn’t happen, we will live to regret this inaction. And that’s the best case scenario. The worst is that there won’t be anyone left to regret a thing.
POSTSCRIPT:
Since publishing this article earlier today, several other AI insiders have stepped forward to share their concerns about the tremendous risk posed by this technology.
Let me share three of them. Here’s the first—from Ethan Perez at Anthropic.
And here’s another, from Julie Steele at OpenAI.
And here’s a third, from Drake Thomas at Anthropic.
This makes clear at how widespread these concerns are inside the AI community. And, in fact, these individuals keep repeating that they are merely expressing views widely shared by their colleagues.
In the face of this, any claim that this is some kind of stunt or smear campaign is easily refuted. Not a single insider has stepped forward to deny that these concerns represent the actual views of a large number of AI experts.
If this was just hype or fabrication, they would speak out. Their inability to do so tells you everything you need to know.