Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, has called for slowing the development of artificial intelligence models, warning of growing risks that could pose serious threats to humans. In a blog post published on Saturday, Amodei said the industry must slow the pace at which it improves AI model capabilities, adding that progress will still seem fast and that companies must make wise use of the time they gain. Quartz
Amodei said slowing development would not mean halting model training or technological progress, but would allow companies more time to align and secure their models and subject them to independent third-party evaluations. He outlined a three-step plan called “pacing the frontier,” with the first step being a commitment from Anthropic to embed third-party evaluators inside the company with institutional access similar to that of employees, including badges, workstations, devices, and visibility into internal systems. Their role would involve confirming that safety commitments are being honored, flagging incidents, and reviewing how models are trained, and Amodei called on governments to require other frontier AI companies to adopt similar measures. Quartz
The second step envisions leading AI companies in democratic nations agreeing on shared safety benchmarks and limits on how fast capabilities can advance, which Amodei said would require government support, including antitrust waivers to allow safety-related discussions between competitors. The third step calls for broader coordination between democratic and authoritarian governments, including China, though Amodei acknowledged there would be “stark limits” on what could realistically be achieved. Quartz
Amodei specifically referenced a recent rogue AI agent incident involving OpenAI and Hugging Face, warning that a similar swarm could, within six to twelve months, become capable of taking over the internet through a persistent botnet, potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. OpenAI chief Sam Altman quickly pledged to adopt Amodei’s suggestion of independent
