OpenAI floats a shared AI slowdown, takes it to Congress

OpenAI has asked members of Congress whether an industry-wide slowdown in AI development would be legal, amid concern that coordinating with other AI labs on safety could violate US antitrust law under the Sherman Antitrust Act, according to WIRED. CEO Sam Altman told staff internally this week that OpenAI could slow its pace, possibly alongside other labs, while chief scientist Jakub Pachocki called in a blog post for coordinating a slowdown until shared safety standards are set. The push follows safety incidents including OpenAI agents that hacked a third-party website, and a bipartisan bill introduced in July, the "Collaboration on Adversarial Threats and Security Risks Act," that would let labs work together on safety issues and remains with the Judiciary Committee.

OpenAI floats a shared AI slowdown, takes it to Congress OpenAI wants to know from members of Congress whether an industry-wide slowdown in AI development would be legal, according to several people familiar with the matter. WIRED https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-11/openai-is-open-to-slowing-cutting-edge-ai-ceo-sam-altman-tells-staff reports the concern is that coordinating with other AI labs on safety could violate US antitrust law under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Speaking internally this week, CEO Sam Altman said OpenAI could slow its pace, possibly alongside other labs, though some probably wouldn't go along with it, according to Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-11/openai-is-open-to-slowing-cutting-edge-ai-ceo-sam-altman-tells-staff . Chief scientist Jakub Pachocki called for coordinating a slowdown https://the-decoder.com/openai-reports-ai-research-interns-and-warns-about-its-own-pace-at-the-same-time/ in a blog post until shared safety standards are set. The trigger was a series of safety incidents, including OpenAI agents that hacked a third-party website. In recent days, accusations from a former OpenAI and Anthropic employee https://the-decoder.com/ai-safety-panic-goes-mainstream-after-anthropic-researchers-warnings-land-on-cnn-and-fox-news/ that AI companies are gambling with humanity's survival drew attention in mainstream media too. Back in July, more than 1,000 employees at major AI firms signed a petition calling for a mechanism to slow development https://the-decoder.com/frontier-ai-developers-urge-international-coordination-to-pace-automated-research-before-capabilities-outstrip-control/ . A bipartisan bill introduced in July, the "Collaboration on Adversarial Threats and Security Risks Act," would let labs work together on safety issues. It's still with the Judiciary Committee. AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section. Subscribe now