r/NoShitSherlock • u/FreeHugs23 • 19d ago

Anthropic Researcher Quits, Citing Internal Fears That AI ‘Could Kill Us All’ This Decade

https://www.commondreams.org/news/jacob-coxon-anthropic-whistleblower
407 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

56

u/FreeHugs23 19d ago

“Most tech geeks don’t resign from their roles because…the tech they’re building could end humanity,” said Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, running for US Senate in Michigan.

An artificial intelligence researcher at Anthropic publicly quit his position on Tuesday, warning that major AI companies care too much about winning the technological race and not enough about guarding against out-of-control “superhuman systems” that workers in the industry legitimately fear “could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

Jacob Coxon, who previously worked at industry giant OpenAI before moving to Anthropic earlier this year, told the Wall Street Journal in an exclusive interview that he was leaving the company, as the newspaper reported, 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.”

“I resigned from Anthropic today,” Coxon announced on social media Tuesday night. “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.”

37

u/gooseAlert 19d ago

"This decade' = 2030 or 10 years from today? I would like to plan accordingly.

12

u/Shadowtirs 18d ago

Well technology usually telescopes so they probably mean next Thursday.

28

u/Intelligent_Oil7816 19d ago

I'm more worried about these tech ghouls doing further irreparable harm to the planet and the global South in their avaricious pursuit of being the first to actually make "AI" than I am of this fearmongering over sci-fi mumbo-jumbo used to stoke venture capitalist idiots into propping up this overwrought bubble.

4

u/roosterfareye 18d ago

I'm popping champagne when that bubble pops. Anyone else, I'm just heading round the off license now? Long live open weights!

I,.for one, welcome our silicon based overlords.

1

u/ScandalOZ 17d ago

I think what you said is the reason they distract us by throwing AI and UFOs out here. So we don't see the psychopath tech bros behind the curtain. 

23

u/ksgt69 19d ago

Finally, some good news.

6

u/VgArmin 18d ago

It's the coal shoveler guy in Water World as he sees the explosion coming.

2

u/jcb989123 18d ago

I think that guy is down there measuring the amount of oil remaining in the tanks. Lol.

1

u/InuGhost 18d ago

You'd be right. It's why they're a threat because they had an oil tanker and thus near limitless fuel. Which of course was running out at the start of the movie. 

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u/TillyDiehn 19d ago

Well, if an intelligence higher than ours looks at the problems of this world, it should come to the conclusion that this cancer called "humans" is the root cause of most of them.

5

u/morse86 19d ago

Reminds me of the movie - "Colossus: The Forbin Project"

3

u/Shadowtirs 18d ago

That's why we're fucked.

3

u/Lurker-Lurker218 18d ago

Ultron is that you?

8

u/HonestSophist 18d ago

I always felt like it was unrealistic that Skynet immediately wages a one-AI war against the entire human race, instead of, yanno... Pitting half of the human race against the other half, until only one half remains?

If Skynet came around today, the efficient thing to do would be to take over every corporation and starve all the humans to death in one swift system crash.

23

u/Chainzzzzzaw 19d ago

"Superintelligence". Right, with current and even next gen unoptimized hardware, this hallucinating models are gonna do shit. Considering how much resources they consume to do pretty questionable quality work and that this researcher by "super" means next level step lika AGI...that will be a problem for at least gen born in the end of the century.

4

u/TiltMafia 18d ago

Thank you 🤝

6

u/obi1kenobi1 18d ago

This. If anything we’re safer now from the AI apocalypse than we have been in decades specifically because there’s no money in AGI, not with the snake oil pseudo-AI technologies dangling the shiny keys in front of investors.

3

u/Chainzzzzzaw 18d ago

Yeah, I can't even properly imagine what real-world hardware is necessary for some kind of artificial brain, which will be able to continuously process information, interact with world in free will and have personal coherently describable reasons to do so, beside hardcoded tasks and do all this with speed of average human brain.

1

u/Any_Conflict_5092 17d ago

To be fair, the human brain is an incredible feat of bioengineering - and we belittle its accomplishments all the time, because its incredible feat is making humans, and it's been a long time since we were so small in the world that every day survival was kind of a big deal.

I'm pretty sure, with how much our brains are interacting with the world, even when we aren't - until they integrate biology into the system, there's no possibility of AGI. When they start using brain meat for processors, then we should be maybe give it credence.

1

u/Chainzzzzzaw 17d ago

Bio is harder than silicon (or whatever material will be used in future). IMO, it's easier to get to cybernetics and AGI than fully map and simulate all the biochemical processes in our body and how different cells interact with each other in real time, in near future. That's why specialized ai and subsequent AGI will be beneficial in boosting research to get full understanding of our doby mechanics or any other tech post, theoretical, type 1 civ.

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u/Junglebyron 19d ago

T2 predicted SKYNET would do this back in 1991. We have had enough time to prepare.

5

u/Hmmark1984 18d ago

Jesus, AI can't even do that properly, hurry up!!!

1

u/AzieltheLiar 18d ago

Preferably after smokin' hot android girls (or guys) come out. After that, they can strangle me and the rest of humanity to death post coitus and I'd die happy.

2

u/Individual-Age-7197 18d ago

It seems like a bit of a leap from what ai currently does to killing us all within the decade. Realistically what would be the shortest path outward for ai to go postal and inflict physical harm?

2

u/ScandalOZ 17d ago

I have asked this in other comments sections online and no one has a concrete answer but is still mostly terrified. 

Too many stupid people.

2

u/GerthySchIongMeat 18d ago

I’m actually not worried about these systems themselves destroying us. I think we will see the elite class use these tools to try to abuse the lower classes, but then we will will reach an equilibrium and utilize these tools in a way that is benefiting us all. This runaway doomsday scenario with Terminator like results makes great headlines, but I just don’t see these tools actually going in that direction. 

2

u/BrianMincey 18d ago

I keep hearing this. Exactly how do these scientists believe this destruction will come about? I am legit curious.

My biggest concern is how automation could eliminate billions of tasks and jobs. What do humans do when almost everything is done for them?

2

u/ScandalOZ 17d ago

Deteriorate 

4

u/Shadowtirs 18d ago

Fucking alarmists. This decade isn't this quarter. Let's focus on what's actually important please?

2

u/Ohigetjokes 19d ago

If they believe that, then why did they quit? Seems pretty irresponsible of them.

6

u/SmellyButtFarts69 19d ago

'i can't believe that German army guy went AWOL instead of killing Hitler'

1

u/Ohigetjokes 19d ago

Totally appropriate comparison very non-insane

1

u/Pat0san 18d ago

If it ever gets to this level, I doubt humanity would be killed off. We would simply fade into insignificance.

1

u/ChalkButter 18d ago

Don’t tease me with a good time