AI's 'wildest ride': Ex-Anthropic researcher warns of impending danger

Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon has warned of AI dangers, backing calls to slow development. He advocated for a 'kill switch' and self-regulation, cautioning that 'superintelligent' systems pose a genuine risk to humanity.

The man who set off what is being described as 'the wildest ride' in the AI Industry, former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, has once again warned of the impending dangers if AI development is not regulated. Speaking in a series of interviews to American News Media, Coxon backed Dario Amodei's call to slow the pace of AI development. In an interview to NBC News' Meet the Press, Coxon advocated for measures to put in effect the slowdown including the possibility of a 'kill switch'. "A kill switch probably would work on a lot of AIs for now. Although I think it’s important to remember, it’d be quite a lot of switches. We have a lot of — our data centres are pretty big. It’s not the easiest thing in the world, but definitely doable while it’s constrained to one sort of physical location...Like Dario said, very soon there’s the possibility that the kill switch just wouldn’t work because a swarm might have gone on an internet-wide hacking run,” Coxon told the American News network .

Call for Self-Regulation

Coxon also pushed for the AI firms to enforce self-regulation and build a framework if they wanted to slow the pace down. “My personal opinion would be to insist and allow that the current labs regulate themselves. I do think that the people running the labs, especially their recent communications, are completely genuine. They would like to slow themselves down,” Coxon told NBC News.

Superintelligent Systems a 'Genuine Risk'

Earlier in a series of posts on September 9, Coxon warned that building of 'superintelligent' systems possessed a genuine risk to humanity. "Do not underestimate the power of this technology. These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources. We have all witnessed the progress in each of these domains, and progress is not slowing," he had posted on X.

"The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible - but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger," he added.

Tech Leaders Join the Debate

The debate ignited by Coxon then saw Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei advocating for a slowdown in AI development or risk losing control. The debate now continues to engage the Tech Industry.

OpenAI's Sam Altman, Tesla's Elon Musk and Google's Demis Hassabis also backed calls for slowing the pace down while Microsoft boss Satya Nadella indicated his support for embedded evaluators in AI system. The Tech bosses believe advanced artificial intelligence systems must remain strictly under human supervision while creators pursue measured progress to guarantee safety. (ANI)

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