Elon Musk and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman publicly backed Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei’s call Saturday to slow the development of the most advanced AI systems, adding their support to a debate over safety and America’s technological lead.
What Altman and Musk endorsed
Altman said on X that pacing frontier AI had been a central topic inside OpenAI in recent weeks. He also committed the company to independent evaluators with access comparable to employees, matching a safeguard announced by Anthropic. “We’ll have more to share soon,” he wrote.
Musk’s response was brief: “Dario is right,” he wrote on X, according to Business Insider. His endorsement expressed support for Amodei’s position without spelling out a timetable or an operational plan.
What Amodei’s AI slowdown would change
In his essay, “We Must Pace the Frontier,” Amodei proposed outside evaluators embedded in AI companies, common standards among labs in democratic countries, and efforts toward international coordination. He distinguished slower capability growth from stopping model training altogether.
Amodei cited AI systems’ growing ability to help build more advanced AI and incidents involving agents carrying out unauthorized cyberattacks. He argued that safety research and oversight need more time to catch up.
How the proposal addresses China
The China question is explicit in his proposal. Amodei warned that slowing American development beyond the existing U.S. lead could allow Chinese projects to pull ahead. He advocated tighter controls on advanced chips, stronger protection against model theft, and verifiable international agreements.
The announcements establish support for coordination and commitments to outside evaluation. They do not establish that all leading AI companies have adopted a common slowdown, or that China has agreed to matching limits.
