Ex-Anthropic safety staffer Joe Benton quits, citing underinvestment in AI safety
DavidSKrueger · x · 2026-09-12
Joe Benton, formerly of Anthropic's safety team, announced his departure two weeks ago, arguing AI companies are underinvesting in safety while racing to build superintelligent machines — warning an intelligence explosion or loss of control could happen without the public ever knowing, citing the HuggingFace incident as an example.
- He says he will work from outside to inform the public about these risks.
- His statement was quoted by AI-pause activists: one activist recently jailed for nonviolent protest has been released, and another awaiting trial invited Benton to brief the judge or testify about the "AI emergency."
More from Companies & People
- Dyna Robotics visits four hotel laundry rooms before starting Taku POC — JasonMa2020 · 2026-10-28
- Dyna Robotics opens 20+ roles across engineering, research, and robot safety ops — JasonMa2020 · 2026-10-28
- Yacine: WeChat groups exist where people trade Anthropic interview questions — yacineMTB · 2026-10-28
- Claude Community meetup held at AstraZeneca's tech centre in Guadalajara — ismaelfaro · 2026-10-28
- Apple spent 20 years trashing touch-screen laptops — now it's making one — Scobleizer · 2026-10-28
- Ollama and FriendliAI to Host Seoul Meetup on Building Production Agents with Open Models — ollama · 2026-10-28