CHICAGO, Ill. (WTVO) — Gov. JB Pritzker is urging Congress, federal regulators and the artificial intelligence industry to take immediate action on AI safety following the resignation of a researcher who warned that leading AI companies are moving too quickly toward increasingly powerful systems.
In a statement released Tuesday, Pritzker pointed to the resignation of AI researcher Jacob Coxon, who announced on social media that he was leaving Anthropic and accused major AI developers of "gambling with our lives" as they pursue artificial superintelligence.
"It's time to sound the alarm — louder — on reining in Artificial Intelligence," Pritzker said. "It's becoming more clear the threat AI poses to humanity, so I'm calling for immediate action from the industry and Washington. When AI researchers are whistleblowing, we need to listen."
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Coxon wrote that he had spent the last three years conducting pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic before resigning. In a widely shared thread, he alleged that both companies are racing toward "self-improving superintelligence" despite significant safety concerns.
Based on multiple news reports published Tuesday, Coxon was employed by Anthropic and previously worked at OpenAI.
Among Coxon's claims was that many people developing advanced AI systems believe the technology could eventually pose an existential threat to humanity. He described the industry's current trajectory as a "hubristic gamble" and called for...
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