On September 8, 2026, a 27-year-old researcher left his company. This was Jacob Coxon of Anthropic. He chose to resign just two months before his stock options were set to vest.
Immediately after his resignation, he took to X to publicly accuse both his own company and its competitors of failing to act responsibly. He claimed they were recklessly advancing towards superintelligence, putting humanity's existence at stake. His post was viewed tens of millions of times within 24 hours, creating ripples beyond the industry. What drove him to forgo the substantial profits he could have soon acquired?
Four days later, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay titled "We Must Pace the Frontier" on his website. He argued that the pace of AI capability enhancement must be deliberately slowed across the industry. Within hours, OpenAI's Sam Altman expressed his agreement on X, followed by Elon Musk of xAI. It was a moment when these long-time competitors aligned in their views.
However, the "pacing" mentioned here does not imply halting development. Amodei himself clarified that it means ensuring there is time for safety measures and third-party verification to keep up with the technology.
This does not mean the trend of AI taking over human jobs will stop. We must now accept as a given that our way of working will fundamentally change within the next decade.
The question then becomes not "What can we do?" but, as with the young researcher's motivation for leaving the company, "Why do we do it?"
Among those long active in the AI field, some say that the solutions and services that answer what will support human activity when efficiency and productivity are maximized will see the most significant growth moving forward.
