Anthropic Researcher Warns of Risk
Evan Hubinger, a former Ripple engineer and current Anthropic researcher, says he believes there is a greater than 10% chance that artificial intelligence could wipe out humanity within the next decade. He made the estimate while responding to Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic researcher who announced his resignation on Wednesday. Coxon accused leading AI labs of racing toward self-improving superintelligence without enough safeguards.
Hubinger backed that concern, saying he and others at Anthropic earnestly believe AI could kill all humans. He added that he personally puts the risk above 10% over the next ten years. Hubinger also said his warning was not an accusation that Anthropic is ignoring the problem. He said the company is trying its best, but there is no plan yet to solve alignment for superintelligence, and the lab is not clearly on track. His role at Anthropic is alignment stress-testing, which involves checking how safety methods could fail.
Resignation and Industry Criticism
Coxon said neither OpenAI nor Anthropic is acting responsibly. In his view, both are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with human lives. He warned that frontier systems might soon gain meaningful influence outside controlled environments. These systems, he said, could become superhuman, hack anything, change entire fields overnight, and acquire real power and resources.
Coxon also argued that major labs are not properly disclosing AI-related risks to the public. Still, he said he remains optimistic that major AI labs could coordinate to slow the race. The warnings came just days after OpenAI and Anthropic released some of their most powerful models. OpenAI unveiled GPT-6 Astra on Sept. 3, which Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described as the arrival of superintelligence. Anthropic introduced Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1, its most advanced models for coding and scientific research.
Ripple Roots and AI Optimism
Before his current focus, Hubinger spent about a year as a software engineering intern at Ripple from June 2014 to August 2015. He worked on the early design of Interledger, a protocol meant to let payments move across different ledgers and currencies. He later moved toward theoretical computer science and AI safety, including work at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.
Ripple has taken a different public stance on AI. CEO Brad Garlinghouse has said the company is adopting AI aggressively and predicts it could boost growth. He described his AI optimism as somewhat contrarian during an appearance at the SALT Wyoming conference.
