Artificial intelligence (AI) could wipe out humanity this decade, according to three researchers from the US company Anthropic. One of the employees, Jacob Coxon, has quit the AI firm.
His predictions were backed by two other current Anthropic researchers in posts on social media. On X, Coxon claimed: “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt.”
It’s not the first time AI researchers and companies have issued such assessments. Here, Kate Devlin, professor of artificial intelligence & society, explains what is behind them and whether there’s anything different about the latest warning.
The latest claims about AI have come from a researcher who resigned from Anthropic. What is your general view on what has happened here?
To give this a sense of perspective, we should remember that it’s one AI company ex-employee posting on a platform known for grandiose claims, which was then quoted by a current AI company employee who put a figure on the risk of human extinction at greater than 10%.
