Breaking

Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon says AI lab staff are genuinely frightened about humanity's future

September 13, 2026 at 05:33 EDT

Foundation Models
Policy & Regulation

Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon told the BBC that people building advanced AI systems are "genuinely frightened" about the speed of progress and what it could mean for humanity, warning that if the industry does not slow down there is "a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future."

13 September 2026 · Anthropic

AI workers are genuinely frightened

Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon says people inside frontier labs fear a near-term catastrophe if development does not slow.

>10%

Hubinger personal estimate AI could kill all humans this decade

1–2 yrs

Colleagues call this crunch time or the endgame

6–12 mo

Coxon says a bot swarm could take over the internet

A personal extinction estimate this decade

Each block is 10 percentage points. Illustrated at a 10% floor; Hubinger said greater than 10%.

>10%

Could kill all humans

<90%

Remaining outcomes

Evan Hubinger, Anthropic alignment lead, personally puts the chance above 10 percent within ten years.

Claimed time windows, drawn to scale

Same unit: months. One block equals six months.

6 mo

Bot-swarm lower bound

12 mo

Bot-swarm upper bound

24 mo

Two-year danger window

Coxon says some peers fear instability within two years; the bot-swarm case could arrive sooner.

From race to a call for pacing

1. Race

Labs chase self-improving superintelligence

→

2. Fear

Staff feel trapped and plan for instability

→

3. Slowdown

Ask for regulation and coordinated pacing

→

4. China

Coxon says a pause fails unless China joins

Inside the labs

Coxon: staff are genuinely frightened
Hubinger: earnest >10% extinction risk
Some considering buying land

The pushback

Huang: end-of-humanity claims are nonsense
Delangue: keep one view in perspective
Warnings seen as hype or a regulatory play

Continue reading

The rest of this article is for AI News Blitz readers. Choose an option below to keep reading.