When OpenAI and Anthropic called for a slowdown in AI developments, it set off a chain reaction. Since then, other AI teams, the stock market, and the White House have all had a lot to say.
On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay titled "We Must Pace the Frontier," in which he proposed a three-part framework, including government intervention, to reduce the current risks posed by AI, citing examples such as the OpenAI-Hugging Face breach. Since then, other CEOs have publicly agreed, including OpenAI's Sam Altman and SpaceX's Elon Musk. Last week in an all-company meeting, Altman told the OpenAI staff that he was open to slowing the pace of frontier AI development.
On Monday, the stock market, ultimately a reflection of investor sentiment, responded to these developments with a downturn in AI-related stocks. As reported by CNBC, in the US, Intel closed down 6% while Nvidia fell more than 3%. In Japan, SoftBank, one of the biggest OpenAI investors, fell 10%. Europe saw similar trends, with ASML, a large supplier to the semiconductor industry, falling more than 5%. The downturn likely reflects fears that AI slowdowns or regulation could squeeze these companies' profits.
Backlash has also come from the White House. President Trump took to Truth Social to attack Amodei's call for a slower pace of AI development, arguing the only regulator the country needs is 'a strong and smart president.' The post echoes an earlier clash between the administration and Anthropic, after the Department of Defense designated the company a 'supply chain risk' this spring—a rare penalty typically reserved for foreign adversaries—following Anthropic's refusal to let its models be used for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.
He also called the movements against data centers a conspiracy theory that only benefits China. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called out Amodei's essay as “Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance, which serves no one’s interest," according to an AP report.
To add to the fray, right-wing activist Steve Bannon and left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders united at an event billed as a "Pro-Human Assembly" to urge lawmakers to do more in reference to AI, the latest in a run of unlikely alignments this week, with rivals like Musk and Altman finding common cause. And at the other end of the spectrum, we have Trump and Beijing pushing back against the idea of slowing AI down.
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The latest escalation aside, an AI slowdown isn't a new concept. CNN reported on Monday, said that Anthropic, Google and OpenAI have discussed creating an AI industry standards body even before recent events, motivated by Demis Hassabis' July essay, which made a similar pitch for an ambitious AI safety plan. Yet White House advisor David Sacks railed against Anthropic and OpenAI for calling for a slowdown while standing at the frontier of the AI race, or, as he puts it, having a "duopoly on frontier intelligence." Given that both companies have presumably been considering this for a while and are at the forefront, we will ultimately watch and see whether rhetoric meets reality in slowing down their own development.