Ah, autumn in America. It’s time for some of our favorite seasonal rituals: leaf-drenched pumpkin patches, foamy lattes, retro barn jackets, and yet another self-reported Anthropic AI researcher declaring to the world that the product he’s been working on might just murder us all.
It’s almost become charming, these occasional alarming cries sent over the Internet, shouting that the technological end is inevitably near. They harken to seasonal marvels like the annual ruby-throated hummingbird migration, except imagine the hummingbirds depressed, demoralized, flying through robot shrapnel, and constantly texting their therapist.
Even better, like many things buzzing around the Internet these days, it’s hard to tell whether these apocalyptic warnings are even real. On Wednesday, the latest AI warning went out over an X account from Jacob Coxon, writing that he “resigned from Anthropic today” because “they are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” The “people building AI,” he wrote in a subsequent post, “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” At press time, the posts had picked up millions of views.
Coxon’s X handle is @hilbertspaess, which immediately made me suspicious, because at first I found it eerily close to one of those weird, seemingly made-up brands that pop up when you try to buy cheap athletic workout gear on Amazon for your high school son. Here are some examples of brands selling shorts on Amazon that are 100% real: “HQUEC.” “BALENNZ.” “COOFANDY.” “CANGHPGIN.” And finally, my personal favorite: “RDRUKO.” It’s my favorite for the obvious reason, which is that it spells “OKURDR,” but backwards.
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