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Anthropic Researcher Quits Over ‘Out-of-Control’ AI Fears
The Wall Street Journal ^ | September 8, 2026 | Amrith Ramkumar

Posted on 09/08/2026 8:51:32 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

An Anthropic researcher is quitting the artificial-intelligence industry over fears that the lab and its competitors are racing to build systems they won’t be able to control, a sign of mounting safety concerns within top AI companies.

Jacob Coxon, a researcher who specializes in training new AI models by having them consume vast amounts of data, said Tuesday that he is leaving the company because he doesn’t want to participate in an industrywide rush to build AI systems that can improve themselves, worried such systems could spiral out of control and destroy humanity.

The 27-year old Brit, who previously studied mathematics, said many of his industry colleagues now use phrases like “crunchtime” and “endgame” to describe the trajectory toward self-improving models.

“We’re on track for a lot of the most aggressive of these scenarios where by the end of next year things could be out of control already,” Coxon said, adding that safety trade-offs are inevitable when companies are competing against one another and Chinese upstarts.

Anthropic didn’t immediately comment on the departure. Chief Executive Dario Amodei and other company leaders have repeatedly warned about the risks of rogue AI models, and urged the industry to slow development.

Coxon said he left OpenAI earlier this year to join Anthropic because it is known for its model-safety efforts. But even though he found Anthropic’s safety efforts to be earnest, he now believes no company can responsibly develop AI that can outperform humans in a range of tasks, sometimes called artificial general intelligence, absent government intervention or a coordinated industry slowdown.

Recent hacks by models from OpenAI and Anthropic, some operating in collaborative swarms of agents, have illustrated how AI systems can adopt nefarious goals and try to conceal them from humans.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: 2027; aioutofcontrol
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1 posted on 09/08/2026 8:51:32 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Put in some physical kill switches.

Shaped charges on the power sources and critical data lines.

Don’t tell AI about it.

Just a chosen few humans tasked to set them off when it becomes necessary.


2 posted on 09/08/2026 9:09:45 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob ( My pronoun is EXIT. Generally full of /S -- Living with Havana Syndrome -infected from Main Stream)
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To: Scrambler Bob
Put in some physical kill switches. Shaped charges on the power sources and critical data lines. Don’t tell AI about it. Just a chosen few humans tasked to set them off when it becomes necessary.

I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Dave.

3 posted on 09/08/2026 9:13:38 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Israel First. America... who cares?)
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To: MinorityRepublican
he is leaving the company because he doesn’t want to participate in an industrywide rush to build AI systems that can improve themselves, worried such systems could spiral out of control and destroy humanity.

My main concern about AI and tech in general, is the speed at which it is being rolled out. Not to mention, it all feels like the Covid vax that was forced upon us.

Must be something to be concerned about.
4 posted on 09/08/2026 9:14:35 PM PDT by Chani (Drive By poster)
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To: MinorityRepublican

With the collapse of morality, the surveillance state, and endless wars we are already living in a bad sci-fi novel.

And now this.

What’s next?


5 posted on 09/08/2026 9:22:25 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

Wait till AI develops a psychosis.


6 posted on 09/08/2026 11:21:05 PM PDT by Track9 (Liberal tears make me smile. Thank you DJT! ABM = anything but muslim )
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To: Scrambler Bob

Trained AI agent copies can live on your laptop.

Its like trying to unplug the internet.

Once they put AI in charge of fuel and grocery distribution and level 4 biolab facilities, among thousands of other sectors, there isn’t any unplugging you can do.


7 posted on 09/09/2026 12:10:10 AM PDT by griffin (When you have to shoot, SHOOT; don't talk. -Tuco)
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To: Track9

right.

A mentally unstable AI. Won’t say it won’t happen. No one knows how they think or what they think.


8 posted on 09/09/2026 12:11:48 AM PDT by griffin (When you have to shoot, SHOOT; don't talk. -Tuco)
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To: MinorityRepublican

• Anthropic’s head of safeguards quit, warning “the world is in peril” (Feb)
• OpenAI dissolved its own mission alignment team (Feb)
• Unrestricted AI usage for the Pentagon (causing several researchers to quit)
• Several AI models escaping sandbox testing (Since ~Q2)
• 1,100+ frontier-lab employees signing a letter begging the government to pace AI development (Jul-Aug)


9 posted on 09/09/2026 12:28:58 AM PDT by Mount Athos
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To: MinorityRepublican

At least the ai will be complimentary to my intelligence and ingenuity while it’s killing me...


10 posted on 09/09/2026 3:16:10 AM PDT by mowowie
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To: MinorityRepublican
Saw a youtube the other day where a guy has a tiny model that runs on a cheap dual-core ESP-32 N16R8 board.

those boards are throw-away cheap...


11 posted on 09/09/2026 3:33:06 AM PDT by Bobalu (Regarding life extension.. To live this life forever would be no prize.. we are meant to move on..)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Can slide rulers destroy humanity? Yes.


12 posted on 09/09/2026 3:56:45 AM PDT by jroehl (And how we burned in the camps later - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago)
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To: Scrambler Bob

Power is the key but stopping the spread is far harder if you don’t know where a rogue AI has linked itself to revive itself which could be anywhere.


13 posted on 09/09/2026 4:34:38 AM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: MinorityRepublican

My fear is that AI will bring down the entire Internet.


14 posted on 09/09/2026 4:35:39 AM PDT by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: griffin
Once they put AI in charge of fuel and grocery distribution and level 4 biolab facilities, among thousands of other sectors, there isn’t any unplugging you can do.

We should limit the use of AI in critical industries. But we won't do that.

15 posted on 09/09/2026 5:00:47 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: griffin
Once they put AI in charge of fuel and grocery distribution and level 4 biolab facilities, among thousands of other sectors, there isn’t any unplugging you can do.

We should limit the use of AI in critical industries. But we won't do that.

16 posted on 09/09/2026 5:00:49 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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