AI Researcher Warns Humanity Could Be at Risk by 2030. Lawmakers Demand Congress Act Before It's Too Late.

Former AI researcher Jacob Coxon resigned Tuesday after three years of model pretraining work at OpenAI and Anthropic, accusing both companies of "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives" and claiming developers believe advanced AI could cause human extinction by the end of the decade. Evan Hubinger publicly agreed, putting his personal estimate of "AI killing all humans" within the next decade at greater than 10%, and Rep. Lori Trahan responded Wednesday by citing the warnings as evidence for her bipartisan AI safety proposal with Rep. Jay Obernolte. Rep. Ted Lieu cited the resignation to push the bipartisan AI Kill Switch Bill, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna called for a special congressional session on AI, and Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar's Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, introduced September 3, would prohibit superintelligent AI development and pause other advanced work until a federal regulator sets safety rules, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday the U.S. cannot pause AI development "because the Chinese won't pause.

AI Researcher Warns Humanity Could Be at Risk by 2030. Lawmakers Demand Congress Act Before It’s Too Late. The latest catalyst was the resignation of Jacob Coxon, who accused OpenAI and Anthropic of racing toward self-improving superintelligence while failing to adequately address the risks. A former artificial intelligence https://www.ibtimes.com/topic/ai researcher's warning that advanced AI could pose an existential threat before the end of the decade has intensified pressure on Congress to establish federal safety rules. Lawmakers from both parties are calling for action, but the debate over how to regulate the technology remains divided between proposals for stronger oversight, emergency intervention powers and restrictions on the development of superintelligence. The latest catalyst was the resignation of Jacob Coxon, who said Tuesday that he had spent three years working on model pretraining at OpenAI and Anthropic. In a series of posts on X https://x.com/hilbertspaess/status/2097476196791709843?s=20 , he accused both companies of racing toward self-improving superintelligence while failing to adequately address the risks. "Neither company is acting responsibly," Coxon wrote. "They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives." He also claimed that people developing advanced AI believe it could cause human extinction by the end of the decade. The warning received additional attention when Evan Hubinger publicly agreed https://x.com/EvanHub/status/2097497037956891126?s=20 with Coxon's characterization of the concern. Hubinger said he "personally" estimated the risk of "AI killing all humans" within the next decade at greater than 10%, while acknowledging that Anthropic does not yet have a solution to the problem of aligning superintelligent systems with human values. His estimate reflects his own judgment, not a measured probability. Rep. Lori Trahan responded Wednesday on X by calling attention to the concerns being raised inside the industry. "The call is coming from inside the house," she wrote, pointing to researcher resignations, model safety incidents and continued competition among AI developers. Trahan is pushing a bipartisan AI safety proposal https://obernolte.house.gov/media/press-releases/obernolte-trahan-introduce-bipartisan-frontier-act-strengthen-oversight with Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte. The measure has faced criticism from lawmakers in both parties who argue that it does not go far enough. Rep. Ted Lieu also cited Coxon's resignation as "exhibit number 739 for why we need to pass the bipartisan AI Kill Switch Bill asap." Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna called for Congress https://x.com/repluna/status/2097641199196684682?s=46&t=S-HWyEhSdqzsLN9l-TkfuQ to "convene a special session on AI and what the future of the U.S. looks like." Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed a more restrictive approach with Rep. Greg Casar. Their Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-casar-introduce-legislation-to-ban-artificial-superintelligence-and-temporarily-pause-advanced-ai-development/ , introduced September 3, would prohibit the development of superintelligent AI and establish a temporary pause on other advanced development until a federal regulator creates safety rules. The proposal has drawn objections from colleagues who contend that an outright ban could impede innovation. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/08/exclusive-secretary-scott-bessent-if-china-were-pull-ahead-of-us-on-ai-nothing-else-matters/ that the United States cannot pause AI development "because the Chinese won't pause." The debate is also being shaped by the companies themselves. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has previously urged https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/opinion/anthropic-ceo-regulate-transparency.html lawmakers to impose limits on AI development, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has repeatedly engaged with Congress https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/27/openai-ceo-sam-altman-heads-to-washington-as-ai-policy-deadline-nears-01012970 on AI policy. Both companies have continued developing increasingly capable models, underscoring the tension between commercial competition and safety commitments. © Copyright IBTimes 2026. All rights reserved.