Mrinank Sharma, head of Anthropic’s safeguards research team, announced his resignation in a cryptic, philosophical letter shared on X (formerly Twitter) on February 9. His departure comes at a critical juncture for the Amazon- and Google-backed firm, which is transitioning from a “safety-first” lab into a commercial powerhouse reportedly targeting a $350 billion valuation.
In his letter, Sharma warned that humanity is approaching a “threshold” where technical capability is outpacing moral foresight. Referencing poets such as Rainer Maria Rilke and William Stafford, he wrote, “We appear to be approaching a threshold where our wisdom must grow in equal measure to our capacity to affect the world, lest we face the consequences.” Sharma emphasized that the world faces a series of interconnected crises extending beyond AI alone.
The resignation has ignited debate over Anthropic’s internal culture. Founded by former OpenAI executives who left amid concerns over commercialization, the company is now facing similar scrutiny. Sharma acknowledged the challenge of aligning values with actions in a fast-moving organization: “I’ve repeatedly seen how hard it is to truly let our values govern our actions… we constantly face pressures to set aside what matters most.”
One of Sharma’s final projects explored how AI assistants might “distort our humanity” or make users “less human”, a concern gaining weight as Anthropic pivots toward “agentic” AI capable of handling complex office tasks. His exit comes just days after the launch of Claude Opus 4.6, an upgraded model for high-end coding and workplace productivity. Industry observers suggest that the pressure to ship quickly and satisfy investors may have compromised the rigorous safety protocols Sharma’s team was tasked with enforcing.
Sharma is not alone in departing; leading AI scientist Behnam Neyshabur and R&D specialist Harsh Mehta also left the firm last week. Anthropic has not yet officially commented on Sharma’s resignation or the concerns highlighted in his letter.
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