Anthropic researcher Coxon resigned and warned of AI risks — Asharq Al-Awsat
In the United States, 27-year-old researcher Jacob Coxon left Anthropic last month and warned that artificial intelligence companies are putting people’s lives at risk. His post was viewed more than 100 million times. Several days later, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a lengthy essay stating that AI development should be slowed because of growing risks, Asharq Al-Awsat reports.
What effective altruism is
Discussions about AI risks are linked to the effective altruism movement, whose supporters seek to use evidence and rational analysis to determine how money and time can be used most effectively for public benefit. The intellectual origins of the movement are associated with Australian philosopher Peter Singer. In 1972, he argued that people should give up resources and comfort to save lives in other countries, since distance should not matter.
In 2007, financiers Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld founded GiveWell, an organization that analyzes the effectiveness of charitable foundations based on data. Two years later, Oxford University philosophers William MacAskill and Toby Ord launched Giving What We Can, calling on people to donate at least 10% of their income to fight global poverty.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Connection with the technology sector
Global poverty, animals on industrial farms, and the risk of global catastrophes are named among the three key areas of effective altruism. The latter area linked the movement to debates about potential threats from artificial intelligence and to ideas of longtermism — a philosophy focused on humanity’s future.
Amodei says he is not a member of the movement, although his professional and personal circle is closely connected to it. Karnofsky was previously his roommate and is now married to Amodei’s sister Daniela, who co-founded Anthropic with him. An early investor in Anthropic was Sam Bankman-Fried, a supporter of effective altruism who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud in 2024.
Many members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration believe that the movement fuels unfounded and exaggerated fears about AI. At the same time, effective altruism and the related rationalist movement emphasize assessing probabilities and preventing risks that could lead to humanity’s extinction.
