A Washington Post editorial invoked the Bible to downplay the potential threat posed by artificial intelligence and instead warned of looming government overreach against Big Tech — while failing to note that billionaire Post owner Jeff Bezos recently co-founded an AI company. The unsigned editorial, published Wednesday evening under the headline “AI hysteria jumps the shark,” came in response to comments in which current and former Anthropic employees said people working on AI projects “earnestly believe” the technology could kill all humans within 10 years. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic Rep.
Greg Casar of Texas to pause advanced AI development and ban “artificial superintelligence.” “Politicians should not seek to regulate a fast-moving technology they don't understand,” the editors wrote. The editorial made no mention of Amazon founder Bezos, who bought the Post for $250 million in 2013 and last month ranked No. 10 on Time's list of the most influential people in AI. The magazine cited his role as co-founder and co-CEO of the AI startup Prometheus, which was launched in November 2025 and valued at $41 billion in June, with Bezos telling CNBC that its work “will make it much easier for engineers to design physical objects.” A Post spokesperson didn't immediately respond to an inquiry from The Independent regarding the editorial's apparent lack of full disclosure.
The editorial came as Bezos — whose Blue Origin space company reportedly holds about $1.1 billion in federal contracts — has significantly softened his stance against President Donald Trump, with whom he feuded during Trump's first term over the Post's coverage of the White House. Amazon, where Bezos is executive chairman and owns nearly nine percent of the company's stock, donated $1 million toward Trump's 2025 inauguration, which he attended with future wife Lauren Sánchez. The company also gave an undisclosed amount to help fund construction of the president's controversial $600 million White House ballroom, and spent $40 million on a widely panned documentary about first lady Melania Trump that IMDb says grossed about $16.7 million worldwide.
The Post has also been undergoing a period of upheaval under Bezos, including the loss of about 300,000 subscribers and associate editor David Maraniss, a 48-year employee, after the owner vetoed a 2024 endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump and ended the paper's practice of endorsing candidates. The Post lost another 75,000 subscribers early last year after Bezos said its opinion pages would only promote “personal liberties and free markets,” leading to the resignation of top opinion editor David Shipley. His right-leaning successor, Adam O'Neal, announced his resignation in July, telling colleagues it was best for him and his family, according to The New York Times.
Several high-profile opinion columnists, including Pulitzer Prize winners Eugene Robinson and Jonathan Capehart, have also resigned or taken buyouts since the libertarian shift in the Post's editorial tone. The spark for Wednesday's AI editorial was a series of Tuesday social media posts in which Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon said he'd resigned his position after three years “doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic.” “Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives,” he wrote.
Coxon also said, “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” In response, Anthropic employee Evan Hubinger, who holds the title of alignment science lead, wrote, “Jacob is correct here — we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!” “I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to,” he added. Spokespersons for Anthropic and OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to inquiries from The Independent.
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