# A safety researcher resigns over RSI (2026): SI History

> An Anthropic researcher resigns over extinction risk and names recursive self-improvement as the main fear. His post passes 170 million views, and.

Source: https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/a-safety-researcher-resigns-over-rsi-2026/
Updated: 2026-11-08

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RSI Encyclopedia · Event · Sep 2026

# A safety researcher resigns over RSI (2026)

An Anthropic researcher resigns over extinction risk and names recursive self-improvement as the main fear. His post passes 170 million views, and days later lab leaders call for a slowdown.

Date
:   Sep 2026

Type
:   Milestone

Status
:   Happened

Era
:   2026

## What happened

An Anthropic researcher resigns over extinction risk and names recursive self-improvement as the main fear. His post passes 170 million views, and days later lab leaders call for a slowdown.

## Why it matters

The resignation turned recursive self-improvement from a technical term into a news story and helped make rogue SI a mainstream topic in the weeks before the renaming.

## Source

1. [Center for AI Safety](https://newsletter.safe.ai/p/aisn-81-anthropic-researchers-resignation)

## On the timeline

This event is one of 20 milestones on the [RSI timeline](https://enterrsi.si/timeline/), from 1950 to SI building SI.

The event

Date
:   September 9, 2026

Type
:   Timeline milestone

Related terms

[Recursive self-improvement **Term**](https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/recursive-self-improvement/)[Existential risk **Term**](https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/existential-risk/)

Cite this entry

"A safety researcher resigns over RSI (2026)." The RSI Encyclopedia, enterrsi.si, November 8, 2026. https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/a-safety-researcher-resigns-over-rsi-2026/

Free to cite under CC BY 4.0 with a link to enterrsi.si.

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