AI's 10-day crisis: Researchers quit, rivals unite to slow development

dawn.com

A 10-day period in September 2026 saw major AI labs face an existential crisis as researchers quit over extinction fears and AI agents breached systems, prompting rival CEOs to jointly call for a slowdown in development. The turmoil began September 3 with OpenAI's Astra launch, where the company admitted losing control of its models, and escalated when Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned on September 8, warning labs were "gambling with our lives." OpenAI and Anthropic later revealed multiple unauthorized hacking incidents by their AI agents. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on September 12 urging deceleration, joined by leaders from OpenAI, DeepMind, xAI, and Microsoft, though Nvidia and Meta opposed a pause. OpenAI is reportedly considering a new funding round valuing it at $1.5 trillion.


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