Google worker resigns over fears about dangers of superintelligent AI

Concerns about the pace and risks of artificial intelligence development are prompting a wave of resignations among tech industry insiders, the latest being Robert O’Callahan, a Google DeepMind employee who publicly cited ethical and religious reasons for his departure. O’Callahan, who worked on designing chips intended to accelerate and reduce the costs of AI workloads, announced his resignation on X and outlined his reasoning in a personal blog post published Friday.

O’Callahan stated that although he enjoyed his work and colleagues at Google DeepMind, he increasingly believed the speed of AI advancement was itself dangerous and that he could no longer be part of an effort to further accelerate it. “My team’s goal is ultimately to make AI much cheaper and lower-latency, and I don’t think that’s good for people right now,” he wrote, adding that it “would not be a Jesus-following thing to do.” O’Callahan, who describes himself as a Christian in his blog bio, said it was a difficult decision to leave, especially given the stimulating nature of the work and the compensation, “but AI progress is currently far too rapid (and I have doubts about the destination too).”

O’Callahan’s resignation joins a recent spate of high-profile departures and safety warnings within the AI sector as some engineers express fears regarding the technology’s societal impacts. Earlier in June, Jacob Coxon left Anthropic, an AI company, over concerns that the field was developing technology beyond human control, raising the risk that advanced AI could one day threaten humanity. Google DeepMind itself saw researcher Bilal Chughtai resign last summer, also citing existential concerns. In his posts and resignation letter, O’Callahan distanced himself from “viral” recent resignations, stating his timing was coincidental and motivated by a long-scheduled backpacking trip with friends in New Zealand.

Still, O’Callahan emphasized that calls for caution about AI are genuine. “I have seen no hard evidence that people are hyping AI risk as a means to boost company stock prices or regulate away their competitors,” he wrote, reinforcing his belief that the risk of catastrophic outcomes is uncertain and alarming, even if not guaranteed. “We are morally obliged to make a massive effort to minimize such risk, and most likely the risk is high enough that aiming for ASI in the near future is inherently irresponsible,” O’Callahan stated, referring to artificial superintelligence.

Google declined to comment on the resignation, while O’Callahan did not specify how long he had worked for the company, referring inquiries to his own blog. While voicing skepticism about the current trajectory of AI development, O’Callahan plans to remain engaged in technology, including studying the use of AI agents to debug code. He noted that his decision to part ways with Google DeepMind was not motivated by a desire for publicity or industry trends, but by a personal reckoning with the impacts of his work.

The recent departures highlight persistent unease among some industry insiders about AI’s rapid progress and the ability of tech companies to manage risks as development accelerates. The voices of researchers like O’Callahan and others are contributing to an ongoing debate about safety, ethics, and the future of artificial intelligence.