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. 

• Why Apple leaned hard into AI at its hardware event, and how always-on features baked into the Watch and AirPods may matter more than the splashy new foldable iPhone 

• How Stokes Space’s $1 billion raise reflects a launch market that’s suddenly wide open now that SpaceX is winding down its Falcon rockets 

• Why investors poured $2 billion into coding startup Cognition at a $48 billion valuation, and what it says about how much room VCs think is left in AI coding 

• A $50 million seed round for floating nuclear reactors and the scramble to power AI data centers