Another Google employee announces he’s leaving the company, citing a desire to create powerful artificial intelligence “Inherently irresponsible”. Business Insider reports on this.
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Robert O’Callahan, who once worked at Google’s DeepMind division, wrote on social networks Xwhose team is developing chips to increase the speed and reduce the cost of artificial intelligence. However, he himself believes that the development of this technology is “too fast.” He posted the text of his resignation letter on his personal blog, which he said was sent to colleagues on Friday. He noted in the letter that he could not “turn a blind eye” to the consequences of his work because it “Not consistent with the principles of a follower of Jesus” (He describes himself as a Christian in his blog profile).
“This was not an easy decision. I love my colleagues and the work environment. It’s great to be paid well for solving exciting problems. But my team’s ultimate goal is to make AI cheaper and faster (reduce processing latency), and I don’t think that will benefit people right now. I firmly believe that the field of AI is moving too fast (and I have doubts about where we are going).”he wrote.
Business Insider was unable to find out how long O’Callaghan, who said he lives in New Zealand, had worked at Google. When asked for further comment, he invited reporters to read the blog post. Google declined to comment.
O’Callaghan joins a chorus of employees at artificial intelligence companies who have either quit over concerns about the safety of the technology or are sounding the alarm about continuing to work in the industry. For example, Jacob Coxon left Anthropic earlier this month. The reason for his departure was concerns that the industry was creating technology that was ultimately beyond control. His words added to widespread concerns that advanced artificial intelligence could one day destroy humanity. Last month, Google DeepMind researcher Bilal Chughtai said he left the company over the summer because he was worried that humans might not have enough time to prevent artificial intelligence from harming us.
However, O’Callaghan’s stance is not as radical as that of some of his colleagues in the tech industry. In a broader blog post, he noted that he believed many of the warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence “Deserves to be taken seriously” However he “I don’t believe there is a 100% chance that ASI will cause a disaster.”.
“Instead, I think the risk is real but not certain. But that in itself raises serious concerns. We are morally obligated to make great efforts to minimize this risk. The risk may be so great that seeking to create an ASI in the near future is inherently irresponsible.”,” O’Callaghan wrote.
He expressed confidence in the sincerity of tech company employees warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence.
“I haven’t seen any hard evidence that people are hyping the risks of AI to boost stock prices or eliminate competitors through regulation.”he wrote.
As Business Insider points out, O’Callaghan appears to have long been concerned about the potential risks associated with artificial intelligence.
“Three facts: I work at Google DeepMind; I believe that artificial intelligence is likely to bring a catastrophe to humanity; and I believe that Jesus rose from the dead. This combination may make me unique. It certainly creates an awkward situation.”he wrote on his blog as early as November 2025.
In his resignation letter, O’Callaghan said he plans to continue working on artificial intelligence in other ways, specifically exploring the use of artificial intelligence agents to debug code. He also noted that his departure was not intentionally consistent with the actions of other employees who have recently left specialty labs over safety concerns.
“Why am I leaving now rather than sooner? This has nothing to do with the recent wave of high-profile layoffs or warnings about the need to “slow down the development of artificial intelligence.” It’s just a coincidence. I had been planning this date for a long time as I had pre-planned a ten day hike with friends starting on Monday (on the Abel Tasman and Whangapeka routes), but I wanted to back out before the trip started. “he wrote.
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