October 28, 2026
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Jacob Coxon leaves OpenAI and Anthropic citing catastrophic AI risks

Tracks the resignation of pretraining researcher Jacob Coxon from OpenAI and Anthropic, his public allegations of irresponsible scaling toward superintelligence, reactions from AI labs and researchers, and subsequent policy debates.

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Updated

Overview

Jacob Coxon, who spent three years on pretraining work at OpenAI and Anthropic, resigned publicly and accused both labs of racing recklessly toward self-improving superintelligence. He said lab leaders acknowledge catastrophic risks internally but keep accelerating, and called the competition gambling with our lives. The announcement spread widely and drew responses from alignment researchers, including Evan Hubinger, who acknowledged substantial extinction risk. The Diary of a CEO host read the tweet on air, along with a quote-retweet from someone he described as a current Anthropic employee estimating more than a 10 percent chance of AI killing all humans within a decade. Reported view counts differ between discussions, from about 138 million to nearly 200 million; Moonshots later cited 165 million. On Moonshots, Peter Diamandis relayed an analysis by venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, using X's country-of-origin feature, that 76 percent of reposts of the resignation came from foreign accounts, led by India and Indonesia, against 34 percent foreign engagement on a skeptical analysis. Peter said, citing the Wall Street Journal, that the post sparked a congressional groundswell over AI regulation, while cautioning that foreign accounts are not necessarily bots and that Coxon's concerns are his own. Alex Wissner-Gross read the data as foreign state amplification meant to slow American AI and placed the resignation at the start of the chain leading to Dario Amodei's pacing essay. The Jurvetson figures come only from the episode. It remains disputed whether the resignation is legitimate whistleblowing or ideological posturing, and how much of its reach was foreign-driven.

Recent coverage

Changes to our coverage published in the past seven days. These are site update dates; podcast discussion dates and sources are in each version.

No changes to this account were published in the past seven days.

What changed

Dates show when each podcast discussion was published.

  1. New information

    Moonshots relayed Steve Jurvetson's analysis that 76 percent of reposts of Coxon's resignation came from foreign accounts, mainly India and Indonesia, versus 34 percent for a skeptical analysis. Peter cautioned that foreign accounts are not necessarily bots; Alex read it as foreign state amplification and tied the resignation to the events leading to Amodei's pacing essay.

  2. New information

    The Diary of a CEO host read Coxon's tweet on air. It says AI builders earnestly believe the technology could kill everyone by the end of the decade and soften this in public. He also read an Anthropic employee's quote-retweet estimating a more than 10 percent chance within a decade and saying there is no plan yet for superintelligence alignment. The host said the tweet had almost 200 million views and built a four-guest extinction debate around it.

  3. New information

    The panel reviews Jacob Coxon's resignation statement following pretraining roles at OpenAI and Anthropic, where he warned that both organizations are irresponsibly racing toward superintelligence despite internal acknowledgments of catastrophic risk. Panelists debate the credibility and viral spread of the resignation, noting sympathetic acknowledgments from lab alignment researchers alongside skepticism regarding researcher motives and the viability of voluntary slowdowns.

Podcast discussions

Sources

  1. 01
  2. 02
    An Alien Mind
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Our coverage

Version history

  • Sep 25, 2026 · Version 3

    Moonshots relayed Steve Jurvetson's analysis that 76 percent of reposts of Coxon's resignation came from foreign accounts, mainly India and Indonesia, versus 34 percent for a skeptical analysis. Peter cautioned that foreign accounts are not necessarily bots; Alex read it as foreign state amplification and tied the resignation to the events leading to Amodei's pacing essay.

  • Sep 25, 2026 · Version 2

    The Diary of a CEO host read Coxon's tweet on air. It says AI builders earnestly believe the technology could kill everyone by the end of the decade and soften this in public. He also read an Anthropic employee's quote-retweet estimating a more than 10 percent chance within a decade and saying there is no plan yet for superintelligence alignment. The host said the tweet had almost 200 million views and built a four-guest extinction debate around it.

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