ANTHROPIC RESEARCHER QUITS AI INDUSTRY OVER FEARS THE RACE TO SUPERINTELLIGENCE IS MOVING TOO FAST Jacob Coxon, a 27-year-old Anthropic researcher who previously worked at OpenAI, says he is leaving the AI industry because he no longer believes any individual lab can safely build increasingly capable, self-improving systems while companies are racing one another. Coxon joined Anthropic earlier this year specifically because of its reputation for AI safety. He says the company’s efforts are genuine, but competition makes safety trade-offs difficult to avoid. “We’re on track for a lot of the most aggressive of these scenarios where by the end of next year things could be out of control already,” he said. He says researchers inside the industry are increasingly using terms like “crunchtime” and “endgame” to describe how quickly capabilities are advancing. His departure is notable because Anthropic has positioned itself as one of the more safety-focused AI labs, even as it prepares for a potential IPO and pushes toward more capable models. Coxon’s view is that the problem is now bigger than any one company, and that meaningful coordination across the industry or government may be needed before self-improving AI systems become significantly harder to control. Source: WSJ 08-SEP-2026 07:53 PM ET