AI Could Kill Us All by the End of the Decade
Researcher Quits Anthropic, Says AI's Builders Believe It Could Kill Us All by the End of the Decade
Jacob Coxon resigned on Sept. 8, 2026, posting that OpenAI and Anthropic are 'racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.'
What was said
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt.”
— Jacob Coxon (former Anthropic researcher) · said Sep 8, 2026 · due the end of the decade (counted to Dec 31, 2030)
The Story
Posted on X on the evening of Tuesday, September 8, 2026 (US time), in a thread announcing his resignation from Anthropic.
The thread opened: 'I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.' The deadline line came two posts later.
CNBC reported the next day that the post had been viewed more than 70 million times. Later that evening, Evan Hubinger, an alignment lead at Anthropic, backed him on X: 'Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade.'
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang rejected the warnings, as reported by CBS News on September 20: '2030 is not going to be the end of the world. There is 0% chance that's going to be the end of the world.'
Receipts
- Jacob Coxon on X: 'I resigned from Anthropic today...' (thread opener, Sept. 8, 2026)accessed 2026-10-08
- Jacob Coxon on X: 'The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade...' (same thread)accessed 2026-10-08
- Researcher says AI has more than 10% chance of 'killing all humans' - CNBC, Sept. 9, 2026accessed 2026-10-08
- Evan Hubinger on X: 'Jacob is correct here...' (Sept. 8, 2026)accessed 2026-10-08
- Nvidia's Jensen Huang rejects AI extinction warnings as "doomsday narratives" - CBS News, Sept. 20, 2026accessed 2026-10-08
- Nvidia boss says there is '0% chance' AI destroys the world by 2030 - The Guardian, Sept. 21, 2026accessed 2026-10-08