Everybody Wants AI to Destroy the World
An Anthropic researcher quit his job because he believes it will. His story is going viral because you want to believe too.
The sky turned orange and red as the reporter drove through Tijeras Pass, which separates the Sandia Mountains from the Manzano Mountains. Her father warned her about mushroom clouds, but they were a common sight due to the nuclear warheads stored at nearby Kirtland Air Force Base and Sandia National Laboratories. This fear of nuclear attack was ingrained in the reporter as a child and she took his warnings seriously.
Twenty years later, she was driving in Los Angeles, worried about AI instead of nuclear war. The 9/11 attacks reignited a desire for a clear enemy, leading to widespread fear of airborne weapons. The reporter's thoughts return to the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and a social media post from Jacob Coxon, who quit his job at Anthropic due to fears about AI.
Coxon's concerns about AI causing civilization's end are unclear and speculative, but the idea of an AI apocalypse is a powerful symbol from the 20th century. Real AI's threat is more complex and less certain than nuclear weapons, which can destroy entire cities with a single missile. AI's potential to cause massive harm is a topic of ongoing debate and speculation.
Written by urgent.news from The Atlantic's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
