One of the most sobering shots about the fast-paced development of artificial intelligence (AI) was issued by a former researcher at Anthropic and OpenAI, two of the leaders in the great AI race. Jacob Coxon, who was until recently employed by the former, posted a thread on X that claimed that AI will possibly kill all of humanity “by the end of the decade.”
This seemingly cataclysmic view of AI, according to Coxon, is not held by a fringe few within their industry. He explains that “many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible—but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger.”
This conclusion was further validated by Anthropic’s current alignment science lead, Evan Hubinger. In his own posts on X, Hubinger not only confirmed Coxon’s statement, he also gave an estimation of how likely uncontrolled AI will wipe us off the planet. “I personally think it is [greater than] 10% within the next decade,” he said. “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.”
This is just the latest in a series of clarion calls from people within the AI industry warning all of us about the dangers of unrestricted development in the field of AI. Just recently we saw an essay penned by OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki warning about the lack of understanding around the fast development of machine learning. Another warning came in the form of an open letter signed by almost 1,400 experts from frontier companies, leading outfits in the AI industry, calling for steps that “[address] emerging risks, develop security measures, and strengthen oversight” surrounding AI. Today, more and more voices are coming together to call for a reasonable pause to AI development and research.
And politicians are starting to listen. Just recently, United States Senator Bernie Sanders said that he will be introducing legislation that will ban superintelligence and pause AI development.
A much-needed break from the AI arms race between companies like Meta, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and the like will enable governments, institutions, and other stakeholders to investigate how we can protect ourselves from the dangers posed by recursively self-improving AI and other developments in this field. It will enable us to put necessary guardrails in place, establish common sense policies, and cement protections for our livelihoods and relevant data infrastructures.
This past July we saw what rogue AI can do and how damaging it can be when it was made public that around 700 rogue AI agents of OpenAI hacked the systems of another AI company called Hugging Face. That situation raised alarm bells all around the world and caused concern among government and private institutions.
That hacking incident in July is a stark reminder of how capable AI is becoming and how limited our resources, expertise, and knowledge are in addressing the potential threats that are emerging. Even experts in the field agree: we are not fully prepared for what these strides in AI development will bring. We must be ready.
The same is also true for us here in the Philippines, with our limited resources and influence in the global sphere threatening to leave us susceptible to the potential dangers of AI. Entire industries risk being obliterated by AI, livelihoods can be destroyed, and even our natural resources can be depleted because of ill-conceived plans just to take part in this so-called AI boom.
Our leaders must step up. They must take a hard look at what AI can do to our country, our people, and now even our existence. The advantages brought upon by AI are undeniably real. We are seeing developments in many fields, and these are all because of novel applications of artificial intelligence. But the dangers are likewise real, and we cannot afford to be at the losing end of what might be the biggest conundrum our species has faced.
We must work together toward policies that enable us to train our existing workforce to adapt to the changes brought about by AI without leading to mass unemployment. We must also take a whole-of-government approach to introduce protections to our public and private infrastructures so that they stand resilient against attacks from rogue AI agents and models. And most importantly, we need to be part of the larger conversation about how we can harness the good presented by AI development while reining in its potential dangers.
We must be clear-eyed about this situation. The threats posed by the breakneck pace of AI development are clear and present but they are not inevitable. The Philippines must take action along with other governments around the world to put the necessary policies in place to ensure that AI serves us instead of leading us down the road to extinction.
*This op-ed was written by Immanuel Pastolero, Content Director of Grupo Agatep, and was originally published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer last September 18, 2026. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or position of Grupo Agatep.
