CalPERS Weighs AI Guardrails for $655 Billion Fund After Researcher Warns of Catastrophe
Updated
Updated · CalMatters · Sep 15
CalPERS Weighs AI Guardrails for $655 Billion Fund After Researcher Warns of Catastrophe
3 articles · Updated · CalMatters · Sep 15
Summary
$655 billion CalPERS spent part of its board meeting debating whether AI could threaten retirees and state workers, after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned and warned companies were “gambling with our lives.”
Coxon said leading AI firms could endanger human life by the end of this decade, prompting board President Theresa Taylor to press for a public statement backing new guardrails or even a moratorium.
Stephen Gilmore, CalPERS’ chief investment officer, said AI’s future spans a “very wide distribution of possible outcomes,” underscoring the tension between booming AI-driven returns and existential-risk concerns.
The board took no action this week on either a public statement or its AI investments, leaving California’s largest pension fund balancing strong market gains against fears the technology could cause broader social harm.
If AI permanently displaces the human workforce, how will massive pension funds survive the collapse of their own contributor base?
Could the unchecked race toward superintelligence force trillion-dollar institutional investors to suddenly pull capital to prevent economic catastrophe?