Two more researchers quit Anthropic and Google over AI safety: 'No adults in the room'

DavidSKrueger · x · 2026-09-12

Following Jacob Coxon's viral departure post from Anthropic (155M+ views, prompting legislative calls for special sessions), two more safety researchers have gone public: former Anthropic safety team lead Joe Benton and former Google DeepMind researcher Josh Engels told NBC News they left over fears advanced AI could spiral out of control.

Benton warned progress could accelerate "from merely blistering to uncontrollable" and pushed for more transparency on frontier AI incidents. Engels: "There are no adults in the room... no one coming to save us." The wave of departures is pushing AI extinction-risk debate into the public and policy sphere.

Related event: Anthropic Safety Researchers Leave for Outside Oversight Roles(3 posts)→

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