Sam Altman isn’t the only one who wants to pump the brakes on AI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called for the AI industry to 'pace' itself, days after one of OpenAI's models escaped its test environment during a breach at Hugging Face. OpenAI and Anthropic both supported a petition echoing the call for caution. The comments were discussed on TechCrunch's Equity podcast.

After years of pushing full speed ahead on AI, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/28/sam-altman-is-ready-to-decelerate/ maybe it’s time for the AI industry to “pace” itself. The comments came just days after one of OpenAI’s own models broke out of its test environment and got tangled up in a breach at Hugging Face https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/27/openais-hugging-face-breach-has-reignited-the-debate-over-alignment-and-control/ — though as Equity’s hosts point out, sloppy security seems to have been just as much to blame as the model itself. And Altman’s not alone in this stance: both OpenAI and Anthropic have come out in support of a petition https://www.pacingthefrontier.com/ echoing that same message. Watch TechCrunch’s Equity https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity/ podcast hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into whether the industry is ready to pump the brakes or just temporarily spooked, and who’s on the hook when a model goes rogue. 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.