{"id":770526,"date":"2026-09-14T16:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T16:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/770526\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T16:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T16:26:15","slug":"ai-ceos-say-they-need-to-slow-the-pace-of-development-but-will-they-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/770526\/","title":{"rendered":"AI CEOs say they need to slow the pace of development. But will they? | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facing a public uproar over Anthropic<\/a> researchers\u2019 repeated warnings that artificial intelligence could kill all of humanity<\/a> by 2030, the AI company\u2019s CEO, Dario Amodei, issued a proposal at the weekend to slow down<\/a> the technology\u2019s advancement to ensure public safety.<\/p>\n

In a rare display of unity<\/a>, the heads of the largest US artificial intelligence<\/a> companies all agreed immediately.<\/p>\n

The OpenAI CEO Sam Altman<\/a>, Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis and xAI owner Elon Musk<\/a> posted support for Amodei\u2019s proposal for slowing AI development, titled \u201cWe Must Pace the Frontier,\u201d with Altman stating he would match Amodei\u2019s commitment to embedding outside evaluators within his company to verify safety practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier,\u201d Altman posted Saturday on X. \u201cCommitting to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDario\u2019s essay points towards the right path forward,\u201d said Hassabis.<\/p>\n

Musk simply wrote: \u201cDario is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AI CEOs\u2019 warnings and promises open up a host of questions about how AI might be regulated, what risks it poses and whether the industry will actually slow down the fevered race to advance its technology. While lawmakers and the tech industry consider how to address growing fear and distrust of AI, many of the hurdles impeding comprehensive AI regulation remain the same as before last week\u2019s apocalyptic declarations<\/a> from a young Anthropic researcher.<\/p>\n

Elon Musk, CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have said AI firms should slow down the development of the powerful technology. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini,julien de Rosa,mandel Ngan\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The US federal government is committed to a global AI arms race. Previous proposed AI legislation has wilted under intense, well-financed corporate lobbying. AI startups face the enormous pressures to release new, more powerful products ahead of upcoming trillion-dollar public<\/a> offerings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amodei\u2019s pacing proposal has drawn heavy skepticism from critics<\/a> and researchers who allege that AI firms are attempting to preempt more stringent government regulation and retain the status quo of power within the industry.<\/p>\n

Anthropic and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Amodei\u2019s proposal focuses on three main pillars. First, a commitment to outside evaluators given employee-level access to monitor risk. Second, agreements between democratic states on AI safety standards. Finally, global coordination with authoritarian governments such as China on security issues.<\/p>\n

Amodei and others in the industry have made similar calls<\/a> for global coordination in the past, even before the industry\u2019s recent warnings over models becoming too advanced and gaining autonomy. The AI industry, especially the factions within it that focus on whether the technology is aligned with humanity\u2019s interests, has also long warned about its existential threats.<\/p>\n

Rahm Emanuel, former congressman and chief of staff to Barack Obama, tweeted, \u201cI can tell you when the last time a CEO or an industry at large asked to be regulated: never. That\u2019s what makes Dario\u2019s letter so striking \u2013 it\u2019s an admission that we\u2019re driving down a dark, winding road on wet pavement with the headlights off. And where\u2019s President Trump? Looks like he nodded off again.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI firms have fluctuated on their emphasis on communicating the potential harm from their products, however, at times warning about apocalyptic effects of AI and at others promising it will bring about utopian prosperity. OpenAI, for instance, shut down a \u201csuperalignment\u201d team in 2024 dedicated to studying long term AI risks and earlier this year disbanded another team<\/a> intended to communicate how OpenAI would benefit humanity.<\/p>\n

While AI companies have made grandiose claims about the threats and benefits from their technology, they have also historically provided little transparency or oversight into how their models operate and spent millions in lobbying efforts<\/a> to shape favorable legislation. The result of the AI industry\u2019s narrative that it is too powerful, complex and lucrative of a technology to regulate, critics say, is that it has been allowed to essentially govern itself.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump appears at the 2026 G7 with Sam Altman and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cAI exceptionalism has led to a total failure to uphold our standards for what products are deemed safe for use,\u201d Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, posted Sunday on X.<\/p>\n

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Critics similarly see Amodei\u2019s proposal as another instance in which the industry is seeking to set its own rules, in this case picking its own evaluators to monitor safety risks, instead of facing the scrutiny of more intensive government regulators.<\/p>\n

Alex Bores, a proponent of AI regulation whose failed bid for Congress spurred $24m in spending both for and against his campaign from AI-linked political action committees, warned that the AI lobby often seeks to undermine legislation while claiming to support regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo everyone who genuinely wants real AI regulation, please don\u2019t fall for their games,\u201d Bores posted Sunday on X.<\/p>\n

Several critics of the AI pacing proposal from across the political spectrum expressed concern around Amodei\u2019s proposal\u2019s suggestion that the government could grant some form of antitrust waiver or exemption to allow industry coordination.<\/p>\n

Former officials, including Trump\u2019s former \u201cAI czar\u201d David Sacks and Biden-era head of the Federal Trade Commission Alvaro Bedoya, suggested that the proposal amounted to an attempt at regulatory capture, which would benefit current industry leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cAntitrust law does not prevent AI companies from coordinating to make sure AI does not hurt people,\u201d Bedoya posted on X, adding \u201cAntitrust law does absolutely prevent AI companies from organizing to prevent the entry of cheaper, upstart rivals because the bigger companies are burning cash and failing to achieve sufficient profitability\u201d.<\/p>\n

The proposal\u2019s calls for international coordination around AI and federal intervention also run up against president Donald Trump and his administration\u2019s vows to turn the US into the dominant AI superpower regardless of safety concerns.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has often framed AI development as a zero-sum contest against China for technological supremacy, an argument the AI industry itself has also promoted in the face of proposed government regulation. Vice-president JD Vance declared in a speech last year that the future of AI was \u201cnot going to be won by hand-wringing about safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Trump once again rejected calls for slowing down AI development while citing competition from China and telling reporters \u201cwhoever wins AI, wins\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could put guardrails. We \u200bcan do this and that,\u201d Trump told reporters while on a visit to Ireland. \u201cBut I think you have a lot of very negative \u2060forces that are bringing it up that shouldn\u2019t be bringing it up and they\u2019re bringing up things that won\u2019t \u200bhappen\u201d.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson likewise said Congress would not lead the charge on regulating AI safety, laying the responsibility at the feet of AI companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facing a public uproar over Anthropic researchers\u2019 repeated warnings that artificial intelligence could kill all of humanity by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-770526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}