OpenAI boss Sam Altman spells out how and why the AI industry wants to slow down: 'We could lose control'

OpenAI chief Sam Altman has made his most detailed comments yet on how AI safety frameworks could work, after he joined Anthropic's Dario Amodei and Elon Musk in warning the industry needs to slow down.

"We welcome a federal framework that sets consistent safety requirements for frontier AI," Altman said in a post on X just after midnight on Monday, adding that "no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness."

Altman warned of two ways AI progress could go "very badly", including losing "control of the future to AI" and too much power concentrating around a single person or company.

His X post follows Amodei's essay on Saturday that urged AI companies to slow how quickly they improve their most advanced models. 

AI stocks were down on Monday as investors digested the comments. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday a slowdown was not needed and would jeopardize America's lead in AI over China.

Safety concerns have been growing since an Anthropic researcher quit last week, warning the industry wasn't taking it seriously enough, prompting other employees at the lab and rival OpenAI to publicly warn of catastrophic risks.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington are scrambling to address calls for safeguards.