An Anthropic researcher resigned this week, warning in a post on X that the company is “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives”. The company’s own alignment lead even co-signed the message rather than walking it back. It’s the kind of doomer warning the AI industry has flirted with before, but the timing, with Anthropic reportedly preparing for an IPO, makes it land differently.
On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into the latest AI safety warning and what it says about the industry’s race toward increasingly capable models. Plus, Apple’s first big event under new CEO John Ternus and more of the week’s headlines.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
3:28 Anthropic researcher’s resignation warning
9:33 What’s actually being done about AI risk?
15:56 Apple’s AI-first hardware event
19:56 The case against a standalone AI wearable
21:53 Always-on listening: watch, AirPods, and privacy tradeoffs
26:43 The foldable iPhone’s odds
27:16 Stoke Space raises $1B for a reusable rocket
31:17 Cognition raises $2B, betting on room for more AI coding players
34:13 BlueCore Energy’s floating nuclear reactors
37:38 Outro
