After apocalyptic warnings about the threats posed by AI, leaders like Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s calls to ‘slow the pace’.
F acing a public objections over Anthropic researchers’ repeated warnings that artificial intelligence could kill all of humanity by 2030, the AI company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, issued a proposal at the weekend to slow down the technology’s advancement to ensure public safety.
In a display of unity, the heads of the largest US artificial intelligence companies all agreed at once.
The OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis and xAI owner Elon Musk posted support for Amodei’s proposal for slowing AI development, titled “We Must Pace the Frontier,” with Altman stating he would match Amodei’s commitment to embedding outside evaluators within his company to verify safety practices.
The AI CEOs’ warnings and promises open up a host of questions about how AI might be regulated, what risks it poses and whether the industry will slow down the fevered race to advance its technology. While lawmakers and the tech industry consider how to address fear and distrust of AI, many of the hurdles impeding comprehensive AI regulation remain the same as before last week’s apocalyptic declarations from a young Anthropic researcher.
The US federal government is committed to a global AI arms race.
Anthropic and OpenAI did not at once respond to a request for comment.
On Sunday, Trump once again rejected calls for slowing down AI development while citing competition from China and reporters “whoever wins AI, wins”.