A researcher who left Anthropic to warn against the dangers of the AI development race testified at a New York City Council hearing that "humanity is more likely to lose control to AI."

According to Bloomberg News and CNBC on the 5th (local time), former Anthropic researcher Jacob Jackson appeared at the NYC Council AI hearing that day, stating, "We do not yet know how to control any AI system," and raised this warning.

"If we continue on our current path, it is more likely than not that humanity will lose control to AI, which could end in human extinction," he said.

Jackson criticized the industry's approach as "extremely reckless," pointing out that "the Silicon Valley motto of 'move fast and break things' might work for a photo-sharing app, but it does not work for building the most powerful technology in history."

He also argued that "some form of speed limit on frontier model development is necessary," noting that while the AI "kill switch" (emergency shut-off mechanism) being considered by the NYC Council could help in the short term, it is not sufficient to guarantee safety in the long run.

Last month, upon leaving Anthropic, Jackson criticized Anthropic and OpenAI, stating that they are "gambling with our lives."

He took the witness stand at the request of City Council Member Julie Menin, who is pushing for an AI regulatory legislation package.

In a press conference prior to the hearing, Menin stated, "The idea from AI companies that this will just be left to self-regulation will not fly."

Alex Turner, a former Google DeepMind researcher, also testified via video, saying, "China is not the only potential adversary. We are competing with a quite high probability to create our own enemy domestically—namely, unaligned AI—which could someday become more powerful than China."

Representatives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta Platforms also appeared via video to testify under oath that day. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google decided to attend after the City Council warned it would issue subpoenas.

Menin stated that she would ask the court to enforce a subpoena against SpaceX's AI division for failing to respond to attendance requests.

As the Trump administration largely maintains a non-interventionist stance on AI regulation, states and local governments like New York are accelerating independent regulations, widening the friction between federal and local authorities.

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