AI race needs a brake pedal

Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from the company, citing the industry's disregard for the risk that artificial intelligence could annihilate humanity, and days later Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay arguing industry and government must pace frontier AI development to keep it from slipping beyond human control. The debate draws on computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton's estimate of a 10 to 20 percent chance that advanced AI could end humanity within the next thirty years, implying an 80 percent to 90 percent chance of survival, with cooperation between the United States and China cited as an obvious focus given their influence over AI's future.

Jacob Coxon, a researcher at Anthropic, recently resigned from the company, citing the industry’s disregard for the risk that artificial intelligence AI could annihilate humanity. Days later, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay outlining how and why industry and government must come together to pace frontier AI development to avoid it slipping beyond human control. Others quickly agreed. None of this is new. Geoffrey Hinton, a renowned computer scientist often called the “Godfather of Artificial Intelligence," estimated a 10 to 20 percent chance that advanced AI could end humanity within the next thirty years. While that sounds alarming, it implies an 80 percent to 90 percent chance of survival. So, how do we increase the likelihood of this safer outcome? There are ways to move humanity toward the safer side of Hinton’s odds. While nothing is guaranteed, a few conditions would make a difference. Cooperation between the United States and China is an obvious focus, as they are the countries with the greatest influence over AI’s future. Amodei’s proposal for embedded