FM Sitharaman voices concern over AI safety after researcher’s resignation
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday raised concerns about whether safety measures being developed by leading AI companies are keeping up with the technology's rapid progress. Her comments came after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, citing concerns over the push towards self-improving AI systems.
Sitharaman said the significance of Coxon's decision went beyond the resignation itself, as senior figures within the sector had acknowledged the substance of his concerns. File image/IANS
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday questioned whether safeguards being developed by frontier artificial intelligence companies are keeping pace with the rapid advancement of the technology, citing the recent resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon over concerns about the race towards self-improving AI systems. Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest 2026, Sitharaman said Coxon's resignation had drawn attention because his concerns about AI safety were echoed by senior figures within the frontier AI ecosystem.
"Again, just this week, public attention was drawn across global markets when a researcher resigned from one of the world's leading AI laboratories," she said. Coxon, who had worked on AI pretraining research at OpenAI and Anthropic, announced his resignation this week, saying the leading AI companies were not acting responsibly and were racing towards self-improving superintelligence. He warned that the technology could pose an existential threat if developed without adequate safeguards.
In his resignation statement, Coxon said commercial frontier labs were "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives", a warning Sitharaman quoted in her address. The resignation came amid growing concerns within the AI industry over the speed of development and whether companies can ensure that increasingly capable systems remain aligned with human interests. Coxon has said he was particularly concerned about the competitive pressure among AI labs to develop increasingly powerful systems quickly.
Sitharaman said the significance of Coxon's decision went beyond the resignation itself, as senior figures within the sector had acknowledged the substance of his concerns. "What gave that resignation its weight was not the social media post itself, but that senior figure within the frontier ecosystem acknowledged the substance of his warning," she said. She questioned whether the industry could provide credible assurances that its safeguards were developing quickly enough.
"Who from the global AI industry will stand up and reassure the public? Who will demonstrate that safeguards are actually keeping pace with the speed?" Sitharaman said. The Finance Minister said technological solutions could also be used to address vulnerabilities created by technology, but warned that safeguards must be continuously updated. "Unless those safeguards arrive quickly and update continuously, the question of AI going rogue is left for the society at large to answer," she said.
Sitharaman said the responsibility for managing AI risks cannot be left solely to technology teams, arguing that regulators, boards and senior management must understand where AI is being deployed and what risks could arise from its use. She said the policy challenge was to build systems that are "fast yet accountable" and "autonomous yet reversible", while maintaining consumer trust.
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