Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon says he is 90% certain that Chinese spies have infiltrated two of America’s leading artificial intelligence companies, warning that Beijing could steal technological breakthroughs regardless of whether U.S. developers slow their progress.
Coxon made the allegation during an interview with entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David on the PBD Podcast, arguing that the possibility of espionage undermines the idea that the United States can maintain its lead in artificial intelligence by controlling the pace of domestic development.
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“I think one really important thing people don’t realize is that China already has spies at OpenAI and Anthropic,” adding that he’s 90% positive. “It’s almost certain that they have spies already there … There’s no serious background check for this sort of stuff yet.”
Coxon says China could steal America’s AI advances at any moment
Coxon’s allegations about Chinese espionage follow his departure from Anthropic, where he has said he became increasingly concerned about the direction of AI development.
The claim also comes as conversation continues surrounding whether or not companies developing increasingly powerful systems — systems that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei believes could go so far as curing cancer — can innovate at a responsible pace and adequately protect their technology.
Policymakers are actively debating whether the United States should accelerate AI development to maintain its competitive advantage over China or introduce stronger safeguards to address potential risks.
But Coxton’s latest comments add another dimension to that debate: whether the United States can meaningfully control the risks associated with AI development if sensitive advances can be obtained by foreign competitors already.
During the podcast interview, Coxon argued that, even if American AI companies pull ahead of Chinese competitors, the advantage may not last — because research and technological breakthroughs can be stolen.
“China has the ability to hack at any time,” he said. “If we pull ahead, that doesn’t give us a big lead. They can just step in, steal our progress at any time and catch up.”