A prominent PR firm with ties to AI doomsayers worked for Jacob Coxon as the ex-Anthropic researcher made national headlines for sounding the knell of the apocalypse about artificial intelligence — even as he denied working with third parties in going public with his concerns — according to a report.
DEY. Ideas + Influence helped book interviews for Coxon on Sept. 9 — a day after he announced his resignation and warned that people building advanced AI believe the tech “could kill us all by the end of the decade” — Pirate Wires reported Thursday, calling DEY. a “doomer” PR firm.
The outlet cited two people familiar with the matter and an email it said showed DEY. seeking to arrange an interview for the 27-year-old techie.
DEY. also worked to book media appearances for AI naysayer Nate Soares that overlapped with Coxon’s media blitz, according to the report.
Soares, president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, was recently the subject of a Post report about his relationship with Aella, an OnlyFans model and self-described sex worker who has publicly discussed their “consensual non-consent” kink and said the pair filmed porn together.
The Pirate Wires report raised questions about how much of Coxon’s sudden media blitz was coordinated behind the scenes.
Kicking off the barrage of coverage was a Sept. 8 social media post by Coxon that has drawn over 173 million views.
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade,” he wrote on X.
“This is not a marketing stunt,” he added, claiming executives and senior researchers often soften their public language while expressing greater fear privately.
Within a day, Coxon was appearing across major television networks and being interviewed by outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Axios, Time and Wired.
Fox News anchor Bret Baier directly asked Coxon on Sept. 9 whether he had worked with outside parties in going public.
“Did you work with any third parties as far as this whistleblowing and coming out?” the journo asked.
“Not at all,” Coxon replied.
Still, the pace at which his doomerism entered the mainstream — with Anthropic’s own CEO Dario Amodei saying he mostly agrees with his young ex-employee — raised eyebrows.
“I think the groundwork for this psy op (for lack of a better term) has been prepared for a long time. This was just the match that lit the fire,” Elon Musk wrote on X.
Pirate Wires said it could not determine exactly when Coxon’s relationship with DEY. began.
Soares said on X that he put Coxon in touch with DEY. himself, after Coxon’s first post topped 100,000 likes — a milestone Pirate Wires said came within a day of its publication.
Coxon did not immediately respond to Pirate Wires’ request for comment, according to the outlet. DEY. also did not immediately respond.
The communications firm represents several prominent figures and organizations involved in debates over AI safety.
According to Pirate Wires, DEY.’s clients include Eliezer Yudkowsky, Soares’s co-author of the AI-phobic “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies,” and Timnit Gebru, whom Wired dubbed “one of AI’s fiercest critics.
DEY. also advises the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, where Soares serves as president, along with Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and Stanford Medicine, the report said.
On its website, DEY. describes its work as “the ongoing work of shaping public understanding over time.”
The Post has sought comment from Coxon and DEY.