Dario Amodei and other AI leaders want to ‘Pace the Frontier’ but…how?

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei outlined a plan to "pace the frontier" of AI development, proposing independent safety evaluators and coordination among AI labs in democratic countries, a week after an Anthropic researcher's doomsday warning. The proposal drew industry support as well as pushback from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who told President Trump "we're not going to let an AI slowdown happen." TechCrunch's Equity podcast hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane discussed whether companies can agree on what slowing down means and who gets to police it.

A week after an Anthropic researcher’s doomsday warning rattled the AI world, the company’s CEO Dario Amodei has outlined his plan to “pace the frontier” https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/12/anthropic-ceo-outlines-plan-to-pace-the-frontier/ of AI development. The proposal leans on independent safety evaluators and coordination between AI labs in democratic countries, and it’s already picked up some industry support https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/15/openai-anthropic-google-have-been-in-talks-on-ai-safety-for-weeks/ , along with some pointed pushback from Nvidia’s Jensen Huang https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/14/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-tells-trump-were-not-going-to-let-an-ai-slowdown-happen/ . Watch as Equity https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity/ podcast hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into whether companies can agree on what slowing down means and who gets to police it. Plus, WordPress parent Automattic’s boardroom coup https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/automattics-board-forces-ceo-matt-mullenweg-into-leave-of-absence/ , and a couple of the week’s biggest deals. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TechCrunch , Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1215439780 , Overcast https://overcast.fm/itunes1215439780/equity , Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?si=rZDFHv2sQUul g94iCRgpQ and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X https://twitter.com/EquityPod and Threads https://www.threads.net/@equitypod , at @EquityPod.