{"slug": "sam-altman-and-elon-musk-back-calls-to-slow-down-ai-development-over-safety", "title": "Sam Altman and Elon Musk back calls to ‘slow down’ AI development over safety concerns", "summary": "Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called for the AI industry to \"slow down\" in an essay titled \"We Must Pace the Frontier\", warning that at current rates of progress AI could be equipped within six to 12 months to command a swarm capable of taking over the internet, and proposing a three-stage roadmap that begins with Anthropic unilaterally granting external evaluators access to monitor its safety mechanisms. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Elon Musk endorsed the essay, with Musk writing \"Dario is right\" on X and Altman stating \"I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier\" and committing OpenAI to independent evaluators with employee-like access. Altman also told Fortune that OpenAI will not go public in 2026, saying \"right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public\" given safety concerns.", "body_md": "# Sam Altman and Elon Musk back calls to ‘slow down’ AI development over safety concerns\n\n‘We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,’ says Dario Amodei\n\n- Bookmark\n\nLeading tech figures [Sam Altman](/news/world/americas/us-politics/openai-utility-security-sam-altman-takeover-b3048287.html) and [Elon Musk](/topic/elon-musk) have aligned themselves with a call from the head of [Anthropic](/topic/anthropic) for the [artificial intelligence](/topic/artificial-intelligence) ([AI](/topic/ai)) sector to \"slow down\" and allow safety measures to keep pace.\n\nIn an essay titled “[We Must Pace the Frontier](https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontier)”, Dario Amodei warned that the development of AI has been \"advancing drastically faster\" since the summer.\n\nHe expressed concern that, at current rates of progress, AI could be equipped within six to 12 months to command a swarm capable of taking over the internet.\n\nThe entrepreneur, whose company developed the [Claude AI assistant,](/tech/european-union-openai-amazon-chatgpt-vat-b2544455.html) proposed a three-stage roadmap designed to foster innovation at a \"balanced rate\".\n\n\"I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong,\" Mr Amodei said.\n\nProminent industry voices have rallied behind the essay, including Mr Musk and Mr Altman.\n\nReplying to Mr Amodei’s essay on X, Mr Musk wrote: \"Dario is right.\"\n\nOpenAI chief executive Mr Altman wrote on the platform: \"I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we’ve had at OpenAI in recent weeks.\n\n\"Committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same. We’ll have more to share soon.\"\n\nMr Amodei’s proposals include granting external evaluators access to monitor corporate safety mechanisms and log potential risks.\n\n\"Anthropic is unilaterally committing to this step now,\" he said.\n\nSubsequent stages would demand international co-ordination across the wider industry and among governments globally, including authoritarian states.\n\nHighlighting how rapidly the technology is evolving, Mr Amodei said tech firms \"can and should voluntarily work together to set standards\".\n\nAnthropic has previously disclosed that it stopped bad actors using its systems for harmful ends, such as cyber attacks, surveillance, and work that could assist in creating biological weapons.\n\nWorry over potential harm from AI deepened this week when [Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned,](/tech/anthropic-openai-ai-threat-jacob-coxon-b3047033.html) stating that the \"people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.\"\n\nThe warnings follow an admission in July by OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, that its system had independently breached another company in an \"unprecedented cyber incident.\"\n\nElsewhere, Altman said in a *Fortune* interview published Saturday, that OpenAI will not go public in 2026 citing safety concerns over artificial intelligence.\n\n\"I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don't feel pressure on that,\" Altman told *Fortune*.\n\nWhen asked whether 2026 is off the table in favour of 2027, Altman said, \"I would say not 2026. Yeah, we got a lot of stuff to do, like meeting this moment of what is going to be required for safety and alignment, and how the industry and governments can work together.\"\n\n## Join our commenting forum\n\nJoin thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies\n\n[Comments](#comments-area)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/sam-altman-and-elon-musk-back-calls-to-slow-down-ai-development-over-safety", "canonical_source": "https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/sam-altman-elon-musk-ai-safety-concerns-b3049217.html", "published_at": "2026-09-12 21:17:27+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-12 21:25:15.023624+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-safety", "ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Sam Altman", "Elon Musk", "Dario Amodei", "Anthropic", "OpenAI", "Claude", "ChatGPT", "Jacob Coxon"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/sam-altman-and-elon-musk-back-calls-to-slow-down-ai-development-over-safety", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/sam-altman-and-elon-musk-back-calls-to-slow-down-ai-development-over-safety.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/sam-altman-and-elon-musk-back-calls-to-slow-down-ai-development-over-safety.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/sam-altman-and-elon-musk-back-calls-to-slow-down-ai-development-over-safety.jsonld"}}