Author Links the AI Panic to Regulation and the Future of Open Models

Summary

This opinion article argues that a sudden wave of concern about advanced AI could be used to expand government oversight and consolidate power among leading AI laboratories. It points to Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon’s September resignation post, which warned that AI could exterminate humanity within 10 years, and to Anthropic safety lead Evan Hubinger’s statement that he assigned at least a 10% chance to such an outcome. The author also discusses a proposed Bernie Sanders bill that would prohibit AI models more intelligent than humans and impose severe penalties, while noting calls for regulation from Sam Altman and model safety reviews involving frontier labs. The article describes the subsequent public attention from figures including King Charles, the Pope, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, presenting these developments as evidence of a rapidly expanding AI panic. It links Coxon to Effective Altruism networks and highlights the movement’s focus on existential risk, governance, and safety research; it also notes FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s reported $500 million investment in Anthropic’s 2021 Series B round. The author’s central claim is that regulation could create an oligopoly favoring Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI while constraining open-source or open-weight alternatives. As a counterpoint, the article lists local and open-weight models from China, Japan, France, Canada, Google, and IBM, and advocates building local computing capacity. These conclusions are the author’s interpretation rather than an independently verified account of the motives behind the debate.