Elon Musk pushed back on Wednesday against a former Anthropic researcher who quit the company and warned that AI poses a serious threat to human life. Jacob Coxon, who says he spent three years working across Anthropic and OpenAI, posted a series of messages on X raising alarm over how fast AI development is moving.
Musk responded directly on the platform, calling the posts "seems like a setup" and later suggesting they looked like part of a coordinated "psy op." The exchange unfolded through public posts on X, with both men responding to each other over several hours.
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In his original posts, Coxon accused Anthropic and OpenAI of "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives." He said people working on AI development believe the technology could kill people by the end of the decade, and insisted his warning was not a "marketing stunt."
His posts crossed 120 million views within a day. Musk questioned the sudden reach of the posts, noting he had never seen this kind of attention on a new account with little prior activity.
Reports also noted Coxon had spent only four months at Anthropic, leaving two months before his stock options would have vested. Coxon hit back at Musk on X, writing, "I'm real, and these are my real beliefs. You could ask your xAI researchers about me if you hadn't fired them."
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Billionaire investor Bill Ackman also weighed in, reacting to a post claiming Coxon's warning could be the start of a "sophisticated and well-funded PR operation" aimed at pushing AI regulation. The exchange comes amid growing scrutiny of safety practices at major AI labs.
Anthropic recently said it was working to prioritize safety over speed whenever the two goals conflict, as both it and OpenAI prepare for high-profile public listings while competing to build increasingly powerful AI systems.