Former White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks criticized ex-Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon on the All-In Podcast, accusing him of running a coordinated publicity campaign rather than acting as a genuine whistleblower. Sacks questioned the evidence behind Coxon’s warnings regarding the safety of artificial intelligence.
The dispute centers on Coxon’s resignation from Anthropic, where he posted on X claiming the company and OpenAI were “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” Sacks argued that the media had labeled Coxon a whistleblower without presenting new data or reports to the public. He challenged Coxon to provide the specific leaked information he referenced.
Sacks noted that Coxon’s account was completely blank prior to the resignation thread, with no prior posts or followers. He suggested the account gained a massive audience within a day and pointed to three advocacy groups—Encode AI, the AI Policy Network, and the AI Futures Project—that he said helped spread the post rapidly. Sacks linked these groups to funding from Dustin Moskovitz, an investor in Anthropic’s Series A round, describing them as a tight-knit community.
The conversation also touched on Anthropic’s reported $2 trillion IPO. Sacks suggested that if the company’s own safety staff privately believe their technology poses existential risks, it creates a disclosure problem for Securities and Exchange Commission filings and exposes the company to product-liability claims.
The critical exchange began after co-host Jason Calacanis revealed that Coxon had reached out to appear on the podcast but canceled the morning of the scheduled interview. Sacks suggested Coxon may have pulled out after realizing the interview would be difficult. He also noted that Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang, speaking at a Goldman Sachs technology conference that day, called Coxon’s comments “outlandish and deeply untrue.”
