Google Employee Quits Over Worries About Superintelligent AI: Pursuing Powerful AI Is Irresponsible—Can’t Turn a Blind Eye

According to a report by Business Insider, a Google employee said he has resigned from the company, arguing that pursuing more powerful AI is “inherently irresponsible.” Robert O’Callahan, who previously worked at Google DeepMind, posted on X that his team is developing chips to make AI run faster and at lower cost, and that he believes AI has “progressed too fast.”

He shared a resignation letter on his personal blog and said he sent it to colleagues on Friday. In the letter, he wrote that he couldn’t “turn a blind eye” to the impact of his work, because doing so “is not something a person who follows Jesus should do.” In his blog bio, he describes himself as a Christian.

“This is not an easy decision. I like my coworkers and I like the work environment here, and being paid a generous salary to solve interesting problems has always been a great thing,” he wrote. “But our team’s ultimate goal is to reduce the cost of AI dramatically and significantly lower latency, and I don’t think that is good for the people currently living: I strongly believe the speed of AI progress is simply too fast (and I also have doubts about where it will ultimately lead).”