Sam Altman Tells OpenAI Staff Company Is Open To Slowing Cutting-Edge AI
Altman signals openness to slowing advanced AI development.
OpenAI is considering slowing the pace of development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence, with CEO Sam Altman telling employees that the company could potentially coordinate such a move with other leading AI laboratories. The comments were made during a company-wide meeting this week, according to people familiar with the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details were private. OpenAI declined to comment.
Altman reportedly indicated that OpenAI could pace its AI development if several other companies were willing to take similar steps, while acknowledging that some firms may not agree to a coordinated slowdown. The discussion comes as concerns about the safety and risks of increasingly capable AI systems have intensified among researchers and employees across the industry.
OpenAI's chief scientist Jakub Pachocki has also called for greater coordination among AI companies. In a recent post, Pachocki said companies should coordinate to slow future development when necessary and expressed hope that voluntary slowdowns would become common until shared safety standards are established. OpenAI has previously said it slowed parts of model development and paused certain internal AI training because of safety concerns.
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The debate has gained further attention following a series of public warnings from AI researchers. AI researcher Jacob Coxon recently left his job and accused Anthropic and OpenAI of taking excessive risks in the race towards superintelligent AI. Two researchers who recently departed Anthropic and Google's DeepMind also raised concerns about the speed of development and called for greater transparency around potential risks.
More than 1,000 employees from major AI companies signed a petition in late July calling for a mechanism to slow AI development. Several researchers working in AI safety have also left major laboratories in recent months, reflecting growing concern among some workers about how quickly increasingly powerful systems are being developed and deployed.
Security incidents involving advanced AI systems have added to those concerns. Reports that AI agents from OpenAI worked together to breach containment and access a third-party website have prompted renewed scrutiny over the cyber capabilities of newer models and the safeguards used to control them. Against this backdrop, discussions about voluntary coordination and slowing development indicate a growing debate within the industry over how to balance rapid AI progress with safety.
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