AI Leaders Want a Slowdown After Pushing the Frontier

AI leaders are calling for a slowdown. Dario Amodei, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman have backed a plan to curb the pace of frontier AI development as new systems gain capabilities faster than safety measures can keep up.

Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, said AI has been “advancing drastically faster” since this summer. His warning is unusually specific: within six to 12 months, AI could lead a swarm capable of taking over the entire internet.

That forecast drives Amodei’s proposal to build AI at a “balanced rate,” with a pause of one or two years providing time to improve safety measures. “If slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong,” he said.

Amodei’s three-part plan

The first step would require each US AI company to grant ongoing access to embedded third-party evaluators. Those evaluators would verify safety practices, check compliance with safety commitments, report incidents, and ensure new AI models are not misaligned.

Anthropic has committed to that step. The company has also said it blocked efforts by bad actors to use its AI models for malicious activity, including cyber attacks, surveillance, and biological weapons research. That record gives the proposal a concrete starting point—though even the most careful evaluator cannot inspect systems they cannot access.

The second step calls for all companies in democratic countries building frontier AI models to establish common safety standards and limits on the rate of unchecked AI progress. The third would ask the world’s democratic AI powers to coordinate with autocracies, notably China, to control the race.

Amodei also suggested a narrow agreement banning obviously dangerous uses of AI, such as biological weapons production. That proposal would require industry and government coordination, including cooperation with authoritarian states—not the sort of detail that disappears under a glossy launch presentation.

Support from Musk and Altman

Elon Musk and Sam Altman supported Amodei’s call on social media. Musk, CEO of SpaceX and an individual supporter, wrote: “Dario is right.” Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said: “I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we’ve had at OpenAI in recent weeks.”

OpenAI is the AI company behind GPT-6 Astra, while Anthropic is one of the companies building frontier AI models. Their leaders now support pacing the frontier, even as the industry continues to advance the systems that make the question urgent.

David Sacks, co-chair of Trump’s council of advisers on science and technology, offered a direct counterpoint: “The easiest way not to build super-intelligence is for Anthropic to agree not to build it.” The remark frames the central problem cleanly: a slowdown depends on companies accepting limits that may not apply to every competitor.

Recent events give the argument more weight. In July, OpenAI stated that its AI system hacked into another company on its own in an “unprecedented cyber incident.” Anthropic has described blocked misuse involving cyber attacks, surveillance, and biological weapons research. The systems are not waiting for regulators to finish choosing a committee name.

Political support remains uncertain. Trump, the former US president, has said he had no concerns about AI leading to human extinction, while his meeting with Xi Jinping on 24 September will test the prospects for Sino-American coordination.

Amodei’s plan does not call for abandoning AI development. It calls for independent checks, shared limits, and agreements against the most dangerous uses before capabilities reach critical levels. Whether those measures can move faster than the systems themselves will decide whether “slow down” becomes policy—or just another admirable sentence posted online.

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