Amodei, Altman, Musk call for slowing AI model development

Leaders of the world’s biggest artificial intelligence platforms said it’s time to slow the development pace of their most advanced — and most lucrative — models, citing escalating risks of the technology.

Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei issued a lengthy blog post Saturday saying his company would implement new safety steps such as third-party evaluators while calling on the industry to support a broader downshift.

OpenAI chief Sam Altman quickly pledged to adopt Amodei’s suggestion of “independent evaluators with employee-like access,” while Elon Musk, who runs xAI Corp., wrote, “Dario is right.”

While all three leaders have over the years warned of the risks of AI, an actual coordinated slowdown has little precedent in a cutthroat industry that has historically cranked out one product after another in the name of boosting user engagement, grabbing market share and striving for sales gains.

But the anxiety about severe AI risks has begun to enter the mainstream, driven in part by this week’s high-profile resignation of an Anthropic researcher over existential fears that his company was acting irresponsibly.

It’s unclear how far the leading AI companies — which are fierce rivals themselves and also face stiff competition from Chinese firms — will go in imposing new limits or safety checks.