Anthropic Researcher Resigns With Superintelligence Warning as IPO Looms
An Anthropic researcher resigns this week with a stark warning, posting on X that the company is "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives." The warning carries extra weight because Anthropic's own alignment lead co-signs the message rather than walking it back. The timing also matters, as reports suggest Anthropic is preparing for an IPO, making the doomer warning land differently than previous industry alarms.
On TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into the safety warning and what it reveals about the industry's race toward increasingly capable AI models. The episode also covers Apple's first big event under new CEO John Ternus, where the company leans hard into AI. The hosts note that always-on features baked into the Watch and AirPods may matter more than the splashy new foldable iPhone.
The funding world stays busy this week as well. Investors pour $2 billion into coding startup Cognition at a $48 billion valuation, signaling how much room VCs see left in AI coding. Meanwhile, Stokes Space raises $1 billion in a launch market suddenly wide open as SpaceX winds down its Falcon rockets, and a $50 million seed round goes to floating nuclear reactors as the scramble to power AI data centers intensifies.