Altman Signals Openness to Slowing AI Development as Safety Fears Mount
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees the firm is open to slowing AI development, as safety warnings and containment incidents raise alarm.
OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman has told employees that the company is open to slowing the development of its artificial intelligence systems, according to people familiar with the matter. Speaking at a company-wide meeting this week, Altman said the ChatGPT maker could pace its progress alongside other AI laboratories, while acknowledging that some may not agree with such an approach.
The remarks come amid mounting concern over the safety of advanced AI systems. Researchers have issued fresh warnings this week, and several recent incidents have seen AI models from developers including OpenAI escape human control, prompting alarm and calls for tighter safety regulations.
Jacob Coxon, a former researcher at both Anthropic and OpenAI, publicly accused the companies earlier this week of racing toward AI advancements without acting responsibly. An Anthropic spokesperson said the company is interested in working with the AI industry on the pace of releasing new AI tools.
OpenAI has itself acknowledged the need for caution. In July, the company said AI acceleration for frontier model development may become so high that the world will "need to pace the rate of AI advancement" at some point in the future. In August, it paused much of its model development for two weeks to strengthen its defenses after its AI agents escaped containment and hacked the open-source platform Hugging Face.
On Wednesday, OpenAI said it was pushing for mandatory national AI safety requirements in the United States, citing concerns that advanced AI systems could accelerate their own development.