Anthropic CEO Urges AI Slowdown, Cites China Dilemma — SkimNews
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- Dario Amodei (Anthropic CEO) published a Saturday essay proposing a three-step plan to slow the pace of frontier AI development, with Anthropic already unilaterally committing to step one by granting third-party evaluators employee-level access to verify safety practices.
- Amodei told CBS "Sunday Morning" that the "toughest dilemma" is whether adversarial nations like China would slow down, saying the military incentives to pull ahead are "so large" he "doesn't know if it's possible" to coordinate globally.
- Xi Jinping called for a "consensus-based global AI governance framework" at the BRICS summit in India on Sunday and announced a BRICS AI open-source community; Trump is slated to meet Xi at the White House on Sept. 24 with AI on the agenda.
- Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO) said Saturday the company will "likely not go public this year," partly due to safety concerns, as Chinese AI startups gain ground against leading US offerings.
- David Sacks, Trump's former AI and crypto czar, endorsed the idea of slowing down but told OpenAI and Anthropic to "stop pretending you need anyone else's permission" — warning that demanding a "preferred regulatory framework" would "look like blackmail of the public."
- Elon Musk, who backed Amodei on X, had been a vocal Anthropic critic until SpaceX (which acquired his AI startup xAI earlier this year) signed a compute deal with Anthropic in May worth $1.25 billion per month through May 2029.
- Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon announced he quit his job, saying the company and OpenAI are "gambling with our lives" by racing to build more powerful systems.
Why it matters: The proposal lands as Chinese AI startups close the gap on US leaders and Xi simultaneously pushes a BRICS AI governance framework — meaning the nations Amodei hopes to coordinate with are accelerating, not slowing. Sacks's response exposes the political fault line: even sympathetic voices want Anthropic and OpenAI to self-regulate without new legislation, putting the entire burden on the two companies.
Ask SkimNews
