An Anthropic researcher’s doomsday warning comes at a very interesting time

An Anthropic researcher resigned this week, warning in a post on X that the company is "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives," a message the company's own alignment lead co-signed rather than walking back. The warning lands as Anthropic is reportedly preparing for an IPO, and TechCrunch's Equity podcast hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane discussed it alongside Apple's fall hardware event under new CEO John Ternus, Stoke Space's $1 billion raise, Cognition's $2 billion raise at a $48 billion valuation, and a $50 million seed round for floating nuclear reactors startup Bluecore Energy.

An Anthropic researcher resigned this week, warning in a post on X https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/gambling-with-our-lives-anthropic-researcher-quits-warns-against-self-improving-ai/ that the company is “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives”. The company’s own alignment lead even co-signed the message https://x.com/EvanHub/status/2097497037956891126 rather than walking it back. It’s the kind of doomer warning the AI industry has flirted with before, but the timing, with Anthropic reportedly preparing for an IPO, makes it land differently. On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity/ podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into the latest AI safety warning and what it says about the industry’s race toward increasingly capable models. Plus, Apple’s first big event under new CEO John Ternus https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/everything-apple-announced-at-its-fall-iphone-event-from-the-foldable-iphone-duo-to-an-always-listening-apple-watch/ and more of the week’s headlines. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: - Why Apple leaned hard into AI https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/apple-ceo-john-ternus-says-the-best-ai-device-is-still-the-iphone/ at its hardware event, and how always-on features https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/apple-watchs-new-ai-features-are-normalizing-the-idea-that-technology-is-always-listening/ baked into the Watch and AirPods may matter more than the splashy new foldable iPhone - How Stokes Space’s $1 billion raise https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/stoke-space-raises-another-billion-to-rival-spacex-at-re-flying-rockets/ reflects a launch market that’s suddenly wide open now that SpaceX is winding down its Falcon rockets - Why investors poured $2 billion into coding startup Cognition https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/cognition-hits-48b-valuation-signaling-investors-believe-ai-coding-is-far-from-a-winner-take-all-market/ at a $48 billion valuation, and what it says about how much room VCs think is left in AI coding - A $50 million seed round for floating nuclear reactors https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/nuclear-startup-bluecore-energy-raises-50m-seed-round-just-two-months-after-launch/ and the scramble to power AI data centers Subscribe to Equity on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TechCrunch , Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1215439780 , Overcast https://overcast.fm/itunes1215439780/equity , Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?si=rZDFHv2sQUul g94iCRgpQ and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X https://twitter.com/EquityPod and Threads https://www.threads.net/@equitypod , at @EquityPod.