Warning That AI ‘Could Kill Us All’ Prompts Response From New York
A chilling warning from one of the people helping develop some of the world's most powerful artificial intelligence has prompted a response from New York.
Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who spent the past three years working at OpenAI and Anthropic, resigned from Anthropic this week and issued a dire warning about where the technology may be headed, bluntly explaining that AI “could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
Coxon says companies are racing toward artificial intelligence that can improve itself, potentially creating systems so powerful that humans may eventually be unable to control them.
AI Researcher Says Companies Are "Gambling With Our Lives"
In announcing his resignation, Coxon claimed that some of the very people developing the world's most advanced AI systems privately believe the technology could pose an existential threat to humanity.
"They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives," Coxon wrote.
The concern centers on what is known as recursive self-improvement. Essentially, instead of humans designing each new generation of artificial intelligence, an advanced AI could eventually help design an even more capable version of itself, which could then repeat the process.
Coxon argues that reaching that point without knowing how to reliably control such systems could have catastrophic consequences.
Another Anthropic researcher, Evan Hubinger, has publicly expressed similar concerns. According to TechCrunch, Hubinger said the risk from today's models remains low, but becomes much more serious if AI reaches superintelligence through recursive self-improvement.
Governor Hochul Responds to AI Warning
Governor Hochul issued a statement Wednesday calling on the federal government to take the warnings seriously.
"When the people building the world's most powerful AI systems are sounding the alarm about potentially catastrophic risks, we have a responsibility to listen and act," Hochul said.
The governor added that artificial intelligence is advancing at an "extraordinary speed" and argued that the federal government needs stronger national standards governing the technology.
New York Takes Lead in Keeping AI in Check
Late last year, the governor signed the RAISE Act, which requires developers of powerful frontier AI models to publicly disclose information about their safety protocols and report certain critical incidents to the state. The law also created state oversight of large frontier AI developers.
New York has continued expanding its oversight of artificial intelligence in 2026, including the creation of a new Office of Digital Innovation, Governance, Integrity and Trust, or DIGIT, which is tasked in part with overseeing digital safety and frontier AI developers.
Hochul worries that these measures aren't enough.
"States cannot solve this problem alone," the governor said. "The federal government must establish strong national standards that put public safety ahead of the race to develop ever more powerful technology."
Hochul ended her statement with an urgent warning of her own.
"We have a collective obligation to ensure technological progress does not come at our own peril. Washington must act now."
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