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An artificial intelligence researcher quit his job at Anthropic on Tuesday and accused the company, and its chief rival, OpenAI, of acting irresponsibly, igniting a frenzy of concern on social media about the rapid pace of the technology’s development.

Jacob Coxon, who has worked as a researcher at both companies, said in a post on X that he resigned out of concern that Anthropic and OpenAI are “gambling with our lives.” He said the people building AI “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

“Do not underestimate the power of this technology,” Coxon wrote. “These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources.”

Coxon’s post, which has been viewed more than 70 million times, reflects a long-standing debate in Silicon Valley about whether AI can be safely developed and controlled. As Anthropic and OpenAI barrel toward potentially historic initial public offerings while releasing increasingly advanced models, many researchers are calling for a coordinated slowdown.

OpenAI’s chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, published a blog post on Sunday and warned that no AI company has “solved alignment and monitoring to a sufficient degree to continue responsibly scaling at maximum speed for much longer.” In the AI industry, alignment refers to the work by AI developers to ensure that the system behaves in accordance with human values and intentions.

“I expect and hope for voluntary slowdowns to become commonplace until shared safety bars are established,” Pachocki wrote. “And I believe that international coordination on future AI development needs to become a top priority for governments around the world.”

Coxon’s post on Tuesday also struck a chord with industry researchers who are worried about recursive self-improvement, or an AI system becoming capable of designing and developing its successor without human intervention. Recursive self-improvement is not yet possible, but companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, have warned that it would make it easier for humans to lose control over those systems.

“Neither company is acting responsibly,” Coxon wrote. “They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence.”

Evan Hubinger, an alignment lead at Anthropic, echoed Coxon’s comments in a post on X late Tuesday.

“Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade,” Hubinger wrote. “I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to.”

While extreme, concerns about the potential for AI to cause human extinction or other catastrophic events are not new in AI research circles. In 2023, for instance, prominent AI researchers and executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, signed a statement that said “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Some experts even use a shorthand, p(doom), to estimate the probability of dire outcomes that could stem from AI.

Anthropic’s Hubinger was also one of roughly 1,400 AI researchers who signed an open letter called “Pacing the Frontier” in July. The letter urged the U.S. government to develop the tools necessary to support an effort to “deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development.”

Some members of Congress have taken steps to try and address AI’s rapid advancement in the months following, but there’s no clear consensus about how the technology should be regulated.

In July, Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., introduced a bill called the FRONTIER Act, which aims to establish a framework for governing the deployment of advanced AI models. And earlier this month, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, introduced a bill called the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would temporarily pause advanced AI development until the federal government establishes safety rules. Both bills have been met with mixed receptions.

“Safety researchers are resigning, powerful AI models are breaking out of their labs, and companies are racing ahead anyway,” Trahan wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. “It’s past time for Congress to get off the sidelines and do its job.”

Lawmakers are also trying to navigate growing public backlash against AI data centers, the large facilities that house the hardware for training and running AI models. The pushback has grown so intense that the The National Republican Senatorial Committee, or NRSC, said last month that data centers have become a “sleeper issue” for the entire midterm election cycle, as CNBC previously reported.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this month that AI companies have done a “horrendous job of explaining themselves to the American people.”

“They’re going to have to take some of the blame, and they are going to have to convince the American people that all the benefits will not accrue to a small group,” Bessent said, following the G20 meetings with finance ministers and central bankers in Asheville, North Carolina. “That’s what they hear from me.”

Between hot inflation prints, a Federal Reserve that’s suddenly back in play for a hike, and headlines of continued conflict in the Middle East, the market’s attention has been almost entirely on the macro side since June. The money that moved went into energy and the value-oriented corners of the market, and that rotation story has been well told. There’s been relatively little coverage of technology and as a result. The XLK ETF has been consolidating into a pattern that doesn’t suggest a top is forming, but rather a bullish consolidation that tells us to expect a breakout and potential market leadership once again. XLK has been carving a tightening range since the early July high and is now pressed right up against the downtrend line off those highs, around $190. The 50-day moving average at $182.74 has flattened and turned up underneath price, which is the sequence you want before a range resolves with a topside breakout. Further validating this analysis is the XLK/S & P 500 relative ratio in the lower panel has stopped making lower highs and starting to turn high suggesting we may see tech leadership into year-end. There’s been a lot of talk this summer about the great software comeback, and IGV has certainly outperformed. However, if you chart IGV relative to the semiconductor holders SMH , you’ll see the ratio has formed a symmetrical 34% pullback, which is almost exactly the same price distance of the June ’24 – May ’25 pullback. These kinds of price symmetry pullbacks happen more than you think and can often help identify an area of completion with a correction. The ratio is starting to bounce off that 34% symmetrical pullback against suggesting that memory and hardware may be ready to once again step into a leadership role. If you noticed this current 34% pullback happened in roughly one-half the time compared to the last one, you’re correct. I think the quicker duration of this summer washout further validates the outlook that it’s simply a correction to the longer-term trend. The leadership within the semiconductor industry is the memory space. The DRAM ETF that we’ve covered in this weekly column multiple times is pressing the top of its summer trading above $62, and both the DRAM/SPX and DRAM/SMH ratios have turned higher. That second one is the tell with memory showing relative strength against semiconductors themselves, which is usually where you find the group actually pulling the sector. Sandisk is the standout leader in the group. The stock has been caught in a range since mid-July working to breakout through around ~$1,900. I don’t yet hold SNDK in the TAG (Tactical Alpha Growth) model at Inside Edge, but do hold a 2% allocation DRAM as I’ve disclosed in this column before. I intend to start working into a SNDK position ahead of the breakout from resistance. Confirming this outlook are the two panels below price with the next 12 months earnings per share at $214.10 after a steady climb. Looking below, when you divide that EPS into the SNDK price of $1,783.51 you see a very cheap next twelve month PE ratio of 8.3x. The forward multiple has stopped compressing as the memory stocks have been considered a cyclical commodity with the demand likely to be satisfied once the initial buildout is complete and then the stock price should rollover. If investors begin treating memory as a durable and structural growth component of the AI buildout that will be over-supplied in the near future, the multiple is where the shift shows up first. And what you see is the forward multiple made a higher-low similar to last Feb, March, and April, which set up the massive rally from $500-$1500. The sell side is arriving at the same conclusion from the fundamental side. Susquehanna’s recent report have DRAM and NAND contract pricing running well ahead of prior expectations, and UBS lifted its 2027 blended HBM (high bandwidth memory) price growth forecast to roughly 79% year over year from 67%, with Micron’s leading-edge capacity reportedly sold out through end of this year. I’m watching Memory company’s management teams present at Citi’s Global TIM today and Goldman Sachs event tomorrow to see whether our view that memory’s earnings power is becoming structural rather than cyclical -Todd Gordon, Founder of Inside Edge Capital, LLC DISCLOSURES: Gordon owns DRAM personally and for clients of his wealth management company Inside Edge Capital, LLC. All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, or its parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. THE CONTENT IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND DOES NOT REFLECT ANY INDIVIDUAL’S UNIQUE PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ABOVE CONTENT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES. BEFORE MAKING ANY FINANCIAL DECISIONS, YOU SHOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER SEEKING ADVICE FROM YOUR OWN FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. Click here for the full disclaimer.

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