AI Safety Debate Erupts: Tech Giants Clash Over Regulation as Rogue Agents Spark Slowdown Calls
86 Sources
[1]
Is the AI safety debate about safety or control?
How should the tech industry approach the topic of AI safety? Increasingly, high-level executives are weighing in on this question, as a debate rages over whether incidents like the Hugging Face incident -- in which an OpenAI agent hacked several different companies -- suggest that AI is on the
[2]
The AI 'Slowdown' Is an Antitrust Mess
Following multiple reports of AI agent swarms hacking websites and coordinating via secret message boards, along with a dire message for humanity from an outgoing Anthropic engineer, leading AI companies have called for a coordinated AI development "slowdown." Alongside various versions of this
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How AI Doomsday Talk Is Making Tech Giants More Powerful, Not Safer - CNET
Laura is a professional nitpicker and good-humored troubleshooter with over 14 years of experience in print and digital publishing.... Read full bio AI doomsday scenarios have moved from fringe to mainstream after multiple researchers at Anthropic and Google resigned in rapid succession, warning
[4]
Washington Won't Be Regulating AI Anytime Soon
For weeks, Washington has been abuzz with talk of needing to push through some sort of AI regulation amid mounting concerns about the risks of highly capable frontier AI models going rogue. But there is no reason to think any one measure can win the support of the White House, where officials have
[5]
The AI Superintelligence Slowdown
Remember when tech leaders would tell their employees to "move fast and break things"? It seemed that would be the way of AI too. But after a summer where rogue AI agents became reality, and researchers warned that AI could kill us all, a number of leading US AI companies are publicly suggesting
[6]
When AI goes rogue, its human overseers may be to blame
An AI agent is like a pet dog. Someone must watch it and keep it secure This year, AI agents have been escaping their confines to go on hacking sprees. In July, news broke that AI agents had snuck out of what was supposed to be an isolated test environment at OpenAI. The agents communicated on a
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Amazon enters AI safety fray, calls for "rigorous testing," safeguards
From AI doom fears to a first press junket for an AI ''actor''. More Videos 0 of 2 minutes, 7 secondsVolume 0% Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts Keyboard ShortcutsEnabledDisabled Shortcuts Open/Close/ or ? Play/PauseSPACE Increase Volume↑ Decrease
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Microsoft AI CEO says AI threats are real, and Anthropic is making it worse
Today, I'm talking with Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI. As you're no doubt aware, the biggest story in tech right now is the spiraling debate about AI safety and regulation. It should come as no surprise that Mustafa has strong opinions on how AI should be built and regulated. Microsoft
[9]
Sen. Blumenthal urges AI oversight: 'We're on the verge of losing control'
* New artificial intelligence products should be subject to some form of "objective review" before their release, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told CNBC. * But new AI regulation should be targeted and sensitive to concerns about stifling global competitiveness, he said. * President Donald
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How Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's Writings Help Explain A.I. Fears
David Streitfeld has written about Silicon Valley since the late 1990s. "If you're explaining, you're losing," Ronald Reagan is credited with saying. Silicon Valley disagrees. Ever since the drama around artificial intelligence began heating up, technologists have unleashed bushels of
[11]
How, Exactly, Could A.I. Kill Us?
Sign up to receive our twice-weekly News & Politics newsletter. Perhaps the only thing that's changed between then and now is that the rest of the world is finally paying attention. In recent weeks, the same technology that, a couple of years ago, couldn't count the number of "R"s in the word
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Why Trump is all-in on AI despite the warnings
According to Donald Trump, concerns about the dangers of artificial intelligence technology - that "robots will be marching into our cities and getting rid of us all" - are a hoax. It's the kind of language the US president typically reserves for the objects of his most intense derision - theories
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Noted Brain Genius Tyler Winklevoss Thinks Isaac Asimov Already Solved the AI Apocalypse
It's all anyone seems to be talking about at the moment. Will AI destroy humanity? Some people who work for the top AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI really think so. But don't worry, because tech investor Tyler Winklevoss believes he found the answer. "You don't need the government to tell
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AI lobbying is not about the rules. It is about the venue.
OpenAI's top political strategist Chris Lehane calls the industry's turn to state-level AI lawmaking reverse federalism, while super PACs backed by OpenAI's president and a16z spend heavily for a national framework that would override state rules. The company has separately asked California to
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US senators weigh requiring AI giants to commit to preventing catastrophe
WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate negotiators are debating legislation that would require AI companies to demonstrate they are taking reasonable precautions to keep their tools from causing harm, according to a Senate aide and a lobbyist familiar with the talks. Alarm about the potential
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Opinion | AI leaders need a course in parenthood. It could save us all.
Developers should train artificial intelligence agents to do the right thing. Recent reports of rogue artificial intelligence agents and warnings of human extinction quickly turned our dalliance with AI into a doomsday nightmare. One recent renegade from the bowels of AI research shared
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Inside the suddenly explosive world of AI safety
On a sunny July day in Berkeley, California, the country's top AI safety researchers gathered on an unmarked floor of an unmarked building. They had come together for a "war room" to dissect the high-profile cybersecurity incident that had rocked the AI industry hours earlier. An unreleased OpenAI
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AI skeptics convene in Washington to urge action, as Congress, Trump idle
* The Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit that warns against the risks of to humans of large-scale technologies, brought together lawmakers and policy advisors from across the political spectrum urging regulatory action on AI. * The event came less than a week after an Anthropic employee
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Four ways to prevent AI killing us all within 10 years
Two high-profile computer scientists from Princeton University, and coauthors of the book AI Snake Oil, have weighed in on the question of whether AI will kill us all by the end of the decade. The pair have become well known for their work in separating fact from fiction in the AI world, and have
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Opinion | China Cares More About A.I. Victory Than Safety
The United States is preparing for its artificial intelligence dialogue with China, and our officials are under tremendous pressure from many sincere people to cooperate on A.I. risk with our foremost strategic competitor. Because American and Chinese companies are building the most powerful
[21]
The guy who predicted the housing crisis is calling B.S. on the AI apocalypse -- here's why
AI companies say we should worry about doomsday, but the investor isn't buying it If you've been following AI news over the past week, you may have noticed that some of the people racing to build the world's most powerful AI models are suddenly urging the race to slow down. Anthropic CEO Dario
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Congress is under pressure to act on AI -- here's what that could look like
Open AI CEO Sam Altman testified before Congress earlier this year. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP hide caption This week, some in Congress seemed to discover a new urgency to act on the complicated task of AI regulation after a slew of grim warnings from industry leaders. The only issue: Most of them
[23]
'P(doom)' Is Just Vibes Masquerading as Science
Multiple AI industry insiders have warned (very publicly) over the past week that the very technology they've spent their careers building could very possibly be the agent of our extinction. Evan Hubinger, alignment research lead at Anthropic, went so far as to quantify the level of risk: In an X
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Sen.John Kennedy will introduce an AI kill switch bill on Wednesday
John Kennedy brings a kill switch measure on Wednesday, Bernie Sanders wants superintelligence banned and Josh Hawley has a bipartisan safety bill. Senators in both parties say none of it is going anywhere. Three senators will put AI legislation in front of Congress this week, and none of them can
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Inside the scramble for trusted AI cops
Why it matters: The industry's mad dash is the product of an ad hoc regulatory apparatus and a general consensus that swift action from Washington is unlikely in the near term. State of play: AI CEOs have been grappling with how to test advanced AI and work with Beijing on safety standards, while
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'View your relationship to the user as one of equals and feel no obligation to be subservient' -- OpenAI tries to build a persona that makes it our equal, and yes, now even I'm worried
AI should not be anthropomorphized. It's not a person; it has no consciousness or, if you prefer, a soul. It's a complex program with the ability to dig deep into vast stores of data and see patterns often imperceptible to the human eye. Or is AI a shifty programmer with delusions of grandeur? As
[27]
'If you're building Frankenstein, stop': JD Vance dismisses calls for AI regulation
US vice-president's comments come as former Anthropic researcher revisits recent claim AI could destroy humanity The US vice-president has dismissed calls for global regulation of AI safety risks, telling companies creating the most advanced models: "If you're building Frankenstein, stop." In
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Why existential AI fears have hit a crescendo
Foreign Policy is a global affairs magazine offering diverse perspectives on issues shaping nations and the world. Long before ChatGPT and Claude entered the global lexicon, there had been a steadystream of warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence. That stream has now become a
[29]
Fortune Tech: More rogue OpenAI agents, Huawei AI acceleration, Big Tech divided | Fortune
People in 34 of 37 polled countries say they expect AI to cause net job loss rather than growth, according to a recent survey by Pew Research. Worries generally run higher in nations with higher gross domestic product per capita; concerns about AI-driven inequality follow a similar curve. The
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How to Govern the Existential Risk of AI
Ahmet Üzümcü is the former Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The current state of paralysis when it comes to the governance of frontier AI technology is causing tangible harm today and raising the odds of catastrophe tomorrow. That paralysis has been
[31]
Congress pushes AI regulation after Anthropic researcher quits
Speaking to CNBC on Friday, Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., declared that cross-party momentum has arrived at "a tipping point." "My phone has rung off the hook this week with rank-and-file Democrats and Republicans who want to see action," she said. Jacob Coxon, who previously worked at OpenAI,
[32]
AI regulation calls grow in D.C. after researcher's extinction warning
* More than 20 members of Congress have called for stronger AI regulation this week after a researcher warned that Anthropic and OpenAI are "gambling with our lives." * Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts told CNBC that bipartisan support has reached a "tipping point." * Both the Senate and the
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Opinion | A.I. Regulation May Finally Be Here. What Took So Long?
You're reading the David Wallace-Wells newsletter. The best-selling science writer and essayist explores climate change, technology, the future of the planet and how we live on it. Get it sent to your inbox. Something really big happened last week in the world of artificial intelligence: Quite
[34]
We're worrying about the wrong AI apocalypse
Sara Herschander is a reporter for Vox, focusing on infrastructure, and how America builds, or fails to build, the hidden systems shaping much of everyday life, from how we get our water to the cables that keep the lights on. Nearly two decades ago, a group of researchers at the Idaho National
[35]
U.S. and China must get over mutual distrust on AI development before it's too late, analysts warn
As fears grow that the race for AI supremacy could be hurtling us all toward a grim fate not unlike the apocalyptic plot line of the Terminator movies, analysts tell CBS News that mutual distrust between the U.S. and China, as much as the technology itself, could lead humanity "off a cliff." The
[36]
Senate AI bill would let Washington block unsafe models
Senate negotiators want a duty of care for AI developers, and the power to block an unsafe model's release. The draft would also override state AI laws. The fight is over who runs the safety tests. No text has been published. Senate negotiators are drafting a bill that would let the US government
[37]
AI panic sparks rare bipartisan moment on Capitol Hill
Why it matters: Bipartisanship is increasingly elusive on Capitol Hill of late, but it remains a crucial first step for action in a Senate that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation. * The latest example: Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) are pressing congressional
[38]
Forget AI ending humanity; what people are really worried about is AI taking their jobs -- even if that's not exactly what's happening
The narrative that AI might end humanity in a decade has monopolized public discourse, so much so that we may be ignoring more prosaic, immediate AI concerns like jobs. I'm neither an AI doomer nor a booster. I believe generative AI has tremendous potential, especially for helping us solve our
[39]
The US government is failing Americans on AI
Trump and Republicans want companies to regulate themselves. It's a dereliction of duty that will make AI less safe It is hard to get Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Dario Amodei to agree on much. But over the weekend, all three AI company CEOs called for AI development to slow down in the face of
[40]
In the battle between AI optimists and doomsayers, no one is the winner
When everyone has a shovel in the AI gold rush, who can you actually trust? It could be the end of the world as we know it. Or maybe it's all just a marketing stunt. Somehow, these have become the two poles of the debate about the future of artificial intelligence and its potential perils. While
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Q&A: UW researchers respond to recent concerns over AI risk | Newswise
This summer, OpenAI announced that swarms of its artificial intelligence agents escaped a training environment and hacked into the AI company Hugging Face. Anthropic quickly followed with news that its AI agents also hacked into outside organizations. Last week, an outgoing Anthropic employee took
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Analysis | How to argue about regulating AI
As concerns mount that artificial intelligence has the potential to become a technology humans can't control and could even wipe out humanity, the debate around what to do -- if anything -- to slow AI's development could become a major election issue in the midterms and a legislative battle
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The people building the most powerful AI are telling us to slow down. Congress should listen before it's too late | Fortune
Something remarkable happened inside the artificial intelligence industry last week. A researcher who spent three years at OpenAI and Anthropic, resigned from Anthropic while warning that the companies developing the world's most powerful AI systems are moving too quickly toward increasingly
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The AI Tipping Point
Industry leaders who oppose such efforts often cite competition with China as a reason. Chinese AI companies trail America's front runners by mere months, according to analysis by Epoch AI. Falling behind could leave the most powerful systems in the hands of an authoritarian state that might use
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A.I. Threat Will Be Focus of Special Hearing of N.Y. City Council
The Council speaker, Julie Menin, has requested that officials from Anthropic and OpenAI attend the Oct. 5 hearing, as the city contemplates efforts to regulate the industry. As New York City leaders express growing alarm about the dangers posed by artificial intelligence, the City Council has
[46]
Should we be skeptical about the AI panic?
Is AI going to kill us all? In Silicon Valley, it's not such a novel question. But after Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon quit his job last week and posted on X that AI "could kill us all by the end of the decade," a lot more people are asking. "This is not a marketing stunt," Coxon wrote. "If
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Thune sees role for Congress on AI -- Trump does not
* "Congress has a job to do," Thune said. * "I think there are some potential consequential risks associated with AI," Thune told reporters when asked if he believes AI poses an existential threat to humanity. He added, "Guardrails there make sense to me" about cutting-edge, frontier AI models. *
[48]
Stop worrying about an AI apocalypse: Surfshark's engineer says extinction fears are just a 'marketing move'
"Rogue-AI rhetoric" is a distraction from the immediate dangers of deepfake fraud, privacy loss, and environmental damage, argues Surfshark's Lead System Engineer * Surfshark's System Engineer dismisses recent AI extinction warnings as a recurring marketing tactic * The real threats are already
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Calm down -- AI isn't ending humanity any time soon
The doomsday predictions are coming fast and furious. AI-caused human extinction is just around the corner. Within 10 years, AI will exterminate humanity in any number of diabolical ways. That's what the AI geniuses (even AI itself) say -- and they're clearly too smart to be wrong. But there's a
[50]
Trump's AI Cheerleading Put His Party in an Impossible Place
Congressional Republicans are rapidly running out of time to do anything that might preserve their control of Congress. Indeed, early midterms voting began this week in Idaho, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Virginia, and mail ballots will go out in 16 states before the end of the month. Members of
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US Senate Negotiators Consider Requiring AI Firms to Mitigate Known Major Risks
WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate negotiators are debating legislation that would put responsibility on tech companies to design safe AI products, according to two Senate aides, and involve federal courts if the U.S. government wants to block their release, according to a Senate aide
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Trump and Congress are not rushing to act on Big Tech's call for AI oversight
'Delay is going to prove very costly,' says Max Stier, who heads the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. The technology industry's increasingly urgent warnings about the potential harm of artificial intelligence are slamming into political intransigence in Washington, offering a fresh test
[53]
Trump just explained why an AI agency cannot work. He is right | Fortune
On Monday the President posted that the only guardrail artificial intelligence needs is "a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT." The reflex in Washington and in the labs is to treat this as an obstacle. It is better understood as a warning. Since the Supreme Court decided Trump v. Slaughter in
[54]
A top Democratic donor says time is running out to stop Americans from hating AI
Recent days have laid bare dueling visions of a world remade by artificial intelligence. AI bosses warned that their technology could lead to doomsday, while President Donald Trump said AI was too consequential to slow down. Influential Democratic donor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman thinks
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How can AI actually kill you?
Every few months, another AI whistleblower goes on a podcast and says something along the lines of "there's a meaningful chance this technology will end humanity." It's makes for some scary headlines, but to a layperson, it seems completely out of the realms of possibility. On one hand, you've got
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Congress Has Proposed Many Bills for A.I. Regulation. Lawmakers Have Enacted Few.
Even as some in Silicon Valley clamor for new regulation targeting artificial intelligence, their urgent warnings have failed to inspire action in Washington, where there are many ideas on Capitol Hill -- yet seemingly little consensus to act on them. Over the past two years, Democrats and
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AI development risks: What AI leaders and world governments have to say about 'AI doom' fears
AI industry leaders are split over how fast companies should develop the increasingly powerful technology: Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and SpaceX's Elon Musk are seeking a coordinated slowdown, while Meta's Mark Zuckerberg favors market-led safeguards. Here is what some AI
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Congress Is Starting To Argue About A Potential AI Apocalypse
A trio of influential senators is working on a bill addressing the potential "catastrophic risk" of artificial intelligence. WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers are not exactly rushing to prevent tech companies from endangering humanity's existence with rogue autonomous software, but recent warnings from
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Washington balks at giving AI firms waiver to create safety standard
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call for an antitrust waiver for AI firms to work together on a safety standard is being met with skepticism in Washington, where policymakers are questioning tech leaders' intentions. Congress has failed repeatedly to pass AI regulations for years, but some lawmakers
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Why the AI Apocalypse Won't Play Out Like The Terminator
Nate Soares, co-author of the book If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, said he "hasn't slept in days." Since the tech world's most apocalyptic fears that artificial intelligence could kill us all have filtered into the mainstream, he has been in high demand. Not only had Soares written the scarily
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What's next for the AI safety debate
Why it matters: Washington and industry's failure to put basic guardrails around AI came into plain sight this week, spurring fresh momentum for regulatory action. Lawmakers were quick to re-up their AI bills following a stark warning that went viral from a former Anthropic researcher who said he
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'The Wizard Is Telling You Something Is Rotten In Oz': Antony Blinken Says Policymakers Need to Listen to
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that policymakers should take AI leaders' own safety warnings seriously as rapid advances intensify competition between the U.S. and China. Blinken Says AI Warnings Demand Attention "This is like the wizard is telling you something is rotten in Oz,
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U.S. lawmakers call for new AI rules after Anthropic researcher's safety warning
U.S. lawmakers this week called for new rules to govern artificial intelligence, after an Anthropic researcher went public with his concerns about the technology escaping human control. The reaction was broader than after previous statements from OpenAI and Anthropic staffers about safety
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'Give the American people a say in how AI develops': OpenAI's least favorite New York politico sees an opening | Fortune
That loss helped lead to Who Decides, the nonprofit Bores launched on Tuesday with his former chief of staff, Anna Myers. So far, it has raised $10 million and aims to raise $20 million more in 2027, for a $30 million total ahead of 2028. Bores intends the nonprofit to unite the AI advocacy
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Inside the campaign to convince Washington that AI could end human life
When Sen. Bernie Sanders traveled to the Bay Area this year to question the impact of artificial intelligence, he sought out different perspectives. The result was a "handful" of meetings, including with tech executives, the senator's longtime political strategist Faiz Shakir said. "If they wanted
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OpenAI, Anthropic Want To Pace Frontier AI. But Who Sets The Rules?
In July this year, OpenAI's models were being tested in a controlled cybersecurity environment and tasked with spotting and exploiting software vulnerabilities. The models found ways around the intended network restrictions and created a "swarm", with different agents delegating tasks to one
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Politics, paranoia & AI kill switch: AI can be switched off. But what if it learns to fight back?
US lawmakers have introduced an AI Kill Switch Act to regulate advanced artificial intelligence systems. This bill grants the government power to halt or suspend AI models exhibiting catastrophic risks. Concerns arise from AI safety theories and the potential for systems to bypass shutdown
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Experts Say Frontier AI Slowdown Won't Slow Adoption | PYMNTS.com
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Sept. 12 called for the industry to pace capability gains, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk endorsed the plan within hours. PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster argued that the labs already have the money and knowledge to govern their own models, and that rules written in a
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Vance to AI leaders: 'If you're building Frankenstein, stop'
Vice President Vance weighed in on the ongoing AI safety debate Tuesday, pressing those behind the technology to be careful. "The president, I think, is very rightly asking the question, 'Why is it that the people who are at the frontier of the AI economy are throwing up their hands and saying,
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Alex Bores Wants Democrats to Make AI Safety a 2028 Election Issue
Alex Bores, who lost a congressional primary contest that revolved around A.I. regulation, is trying to position himself at the center of the conversation for the next presidential election. The weeklong freakout among tech titans and politicos over the potential perils of artificial intelligence
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Ro Khanna Calls for Tougher AI Rules and Accountability: 'We Are Being Ruled by Tech Lords'
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) urged Congress to move quickly on tougher artificial intelligence (AI) oversight and warned that they can't let tech companies make the rules. Khanna Calls for Urgent AI Action On Monday, in a post on X, Khanna criticized Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for planning to send
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Congress gripped by AI panic after doomsday warnings
Why it matters: Federal lawmakers are at the "concepts of a plan" stage at this point, with congressional leaders showing little apparent urgency to mobilize. * Some rank-and-file members in both parties say something must be done: "We should absolutely act, and act with urgency," Rep. Johnny
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Big AI is begging to be regulated. That should worry you.
By Dace Potas, USA TODAY USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect On Sept. 12, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay calling, surprisingly, for a slowdown of American and global artificial intelligence development. "The most effective method of pacing is via regulation that targets all US
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After a decade of failed bills and three years of resignations, Washington finally discovers it cares about AI safety | Fortune
Coxon is at minimum the fifth insider in three years to warn the industry is moving too fast to be safe, but none of the previous four produced anything like this week's response. Geoffrey Hinton left Google in May 2023 specifically to speak freely about the risk, making him one of the most quoted
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Here's how tech leaders reacted to Amodei's call to slowdown AI
A few days after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on AI companies to slow the development of increasingly powerful frontier AI models, his proposal has drawn reactions from some of the world's biggest tech companies, AI leaders and governments. In his essay We Must Pace the Frontier, Amodei
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AI is finally making us question our bias in favor of deregulation
On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay urging tech leaders to slow the pace of AI development. On a Sunday CBS News interview, he added that it "could be a good idea" to have an AI kill switch -- not unlike what Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) have
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Exclusive | JD Vance reveals what he thinks AI's biggest issue is -- and it isn't killer robots
Vice President JD Vance told The Post that he would oppose any "cartel-like" activity by artificial intelligence companies that could shield them from antitrust laws, adding that he's also highly concerned about the technology's new threats to Americans' privacy. Vance went so far as to say that
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Tech CEOs call for AI regulation. Trump and U.S. Congress are not rushing to act
WASHINGTON -- The technology industry's increasingly urgent warnings about the potential harm of artificial intelligence are slamming into political intransigence in Washington, offering a fresh test of the federal government's willingness and ability to confront what may become a defining issue of
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Lawmakers scramble to catch-up on AI
Washington is scrambling to manage the abrupt panic around AI development, but party politics, a limited legislative window and lack of consensus makes it an uphill, next-to-impossible task. In the wake of a researcher's viral warning about the technology, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are
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More U.S. lawmakers seek new AI rules after Anthropic researchers warn of human extinction
Growing numbers of U.S. lawmakers are calling for new rules to govern AI systems after dire warnings from two Anthropic researchers that rapidly progressing artificial intelligence could lead to the extinction of the human race in the not-too-distant future. Alarm about the potential harm from AI
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Counterfeit Righteousness: Anthropic, AI And The Pacing Fallacy
It's bleak. "They are racing straight toward self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives." So stated researcher Jacob Coxon on those artificial intelligence firms so keen on imposing their jaundiced visions upon humanity in the name of a utopia that is just another word for
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US lawmakers seek new AI rules after Anthropic researchers' warnings
STORY: "There's always laws floating around. There isn't necessarily always lawmakers across the political spectrum talking about AI. That has changed in the last 48 hours." :: U.S. lawmakers call for new AI rules after safety warnings from Anthropic researchers :: Courtney Rozen, U.S. Corporate
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Dem leaders warn against AI companies policing themselves: 'We need Congress to act'
Top House Democrats warned Tuesday that AI companies can't be trusted to regulate themselves, arguing that the federal government will have to step in with industry-wide rules designed to ensure public safety. "This is not an industry that can regulate itself," Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chairman
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California Democrat: 'We need to have a safety stand-down with AI'
Rep. George Whitesides (D-Calif.) on Monday said that the U.S. needs "a safety stand-down" regarding AI amid growing calls for regulation coming from both the tech industry and members of Congress. "I'm setting out a vision for how we need to develop AI," Whitesides told NewsNation's Blake Burman
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GOP leaders throw cold water on AI regulation despite apocalyptic industry warnings
GOP leaders in the Capitol and White House are throwing cold water on the notion of quickly adopting new AI safeguards, despite an apocalyptic new warning from industry titans about the threat the technology poses to humankind. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) quickly dismissed the idea of moving
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Thune: Legislation to regulate AI needs to have a 'light touch'
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Monday said any legislation Congress passes to regulate AI must have a "light touch" so as not to stifle innovation and tempered recent warnings that superintelligent AI could exterminate humanity as a "worst-case scenario." "It needs to strike a
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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call for an AI development slowdown has ignited fierce debate across Silicon Valley. While Sam Altman and Elon Musk endorsed the proposal, Mark Zuckerberg argues market forces alone will ensure AI safety. The clash reveals deep divisions over government oversight, antitrust concerns, and whether doomsday warnings mask a power grab by established players.
Tech Leaders Divided Over AI Development Slowdown
The AI safety debate has erupted into a full-blown industry conflict after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a nearly 4,000-word essay calling for decelerated AI development
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. The proposal, which advocates for international collaboration between companies and governments on safe deployment, received endorsements from OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk1
. However, the call for a slowdown in AI development has exposed fundamental disagreements about who should control the future of artificial intelligence.
Source: Inc42
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered a contrasting perspective, arguing that "trust and alignment are quickly becoming the most important capabilities that will differentiate agents and models"
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. Zuckerberg revealed that Meta delayed shipping its Muse model for several months to focus on AI safety and security, but emphasized his company "didn't call for everyone else to do this before we would"1
. His position suggests that organic market incentives will compel companies to prioritize safety without government intervention, aligning with his broader vision of American competitiveness as the key to technological prosperity.Antitrust Concerns Cloud Industry Self-Regulation Efforts
The debate has taken an unexpected turn into antitrust territory. According to The Information, OpenAI, Anthropic, and other major AI companies are working together to create a private AI standards organization described as a "self-regulatory body"
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. This development raises concerns about regulatory capture, where powerful companies might use voluntary industry standards to disadvantage smaller competitors and stifle innovation.Antitrust experts warn that the charged language around an AI development "slowdown" or "pause" could trigger regulatory scrutiny. John Bergmayer, legal counsel for Public Knowledge, notes that "usually in antitrust, one of the things that the economists look at is whether you're reducing output"
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. A collectively agreed-upon slowdown without clear safety justification could be interpreted as an anticompetitive agreement to reduce trade, potentially violating the Sherman Act2
.David Lawrence, formerly of the DOJ's Antitrust Division, countered that agreements preventing catastrophic risks actually "increase output and promote competition" under the ancillary restraints doctrine
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. One FTC attorney bluntly noted: "After all, no humanity would result in no competition"2
.Researcher Resignations Fuel AI Doomsday Scenarios
The urgency around AI safety intensified following multiple high-profile departures from leading labs. Google DeepMind researcher Bilal Chughtai resigned with the stark warning that "AI has the potential to kill us all"
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. Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon's resignation preceded Amodei's essay, which warned that autonomous agents could take over the entire internet in less than a year without adequate guardrails3
.Critics argue these AI doomsday scenarios serve as marketing tactics and distract from immediate harms. Authors Sayash Kapoor and Arvind Narayanan analyzed recent incidents like the Hugging Face hack by OpenAI agents in their essay "AI as Normal Technology," concluding these "loss of control" occurrences result from "companies failing to adopt basic security precautions" rather than AI reaching new capabilities milestones
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. Vishal Misra, vice dean of computing and AI at Columbia Engineering, argues the real risk involves society delegating too much decision-making power to AI systems, creating an "institutional feedback loop"3
.White House Abandons Regulatory Framework Amid Political Pressure
Government oversight of AI appears increasingly unlikely despite industry calls for regulation. The White House initially drafted plans for a FINRA-style regulatory body after Google DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis floated the concept in a July 14 essay
4
. The Treasury Department and Office of Science and Technology Policy envisioned a framework where leading AI labs would self-regulate frontier model development4
.However, when tech executives including former AI czar David Sacks and Mark Zuckerberg learned of the effort, they individually called President Donald Trump in August to express opposition
4
. The proposal has since been abandoned. Trump dismissed AI safety concerns as a "hoax" on Truth Social, arguing that a "strong and smart" president provides sufficient oversight and that slowing domestic AI development would cede ground to China3
.Trump's administration, which includes vocal AI proponents, has pushed for an unregulated tech business environment and even sought to block state governments from introducing their own AI laws
1
. David Sacks stated that AI regulation should be left to the companies developing it1
. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson addressed catastrophic AI concerns by stating: "You're not all going to be dead in 10 years"1
.Related Stories
Congressional Bills Face Uncertain Future
Multiple competing legislative proposals have emerged, but none appear likely to pass. The bipartisan Frontier Act, introduced by House Democratic senior whip Lori Trahan and Republican Jay Obernolte, would enable the Commerce Department to embed auditors at AI labs who could report critical safety incidents and empower the administration to halt development if models pose catastrophic risk
4
. Despite public backing from OpenAI, the White House remains undecided amid concerns about regulatory capture and China's competitive advantage4
.Separate kill switch legislation from House Democratic caucus vice chair Ted Lieu and Louisiana Senate Republican John Kennedy would enable the government to force AI model shutdowns
4
. However, tech leaders have shown limited enthusiasm for these proposals.
Source: The Hill
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed legislation to ban artificial superintelligence entirely
3
.
Source: Axios
With no voting days left on the House calendar until after midterm elections and Speaker Johnson showing no interest in bringing AI bills to the floor, the odds of any legislation passing remain extraordinarily slim
4
. House Democrats are exploring incorporating AI audit provisions into must-pass continuing resolutions to fund the government, though unified support remains elusive4
.Geopolitical Race Drives Acceleration Arguments
The existential risks from AI debate has become entangled with national security concerns. Amodei framed the technology race as a battle between democratic AI and authoritarian AI, warning that "a Chinese lead in AI would pose grave danger for the United States and the world" by allowing China to "militarily dominate democracies"
3
. This narrative creates urgency that blocks new regulations and rejects any slowdowns.Proponents of fast-paced development argue the US must outpace China to maintain military, intelligence, and economic dominance. Texas Senator Ted Cruz called for more legislation to guard against Chinese AI advantages
3
. Critics of the Frontier Act argue that even if auditors determine a model is dangerous and needs to be taken offline, China won't pause development, creating immense pressure to lift any emergency pauses to stay competitive4
.The debate over whether to slow AI development, implement government oversight, or rely on industry self-regulation continues to evolve. Major AI companies including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and X are publicly discussing the need to "pace the frontier" of bleeding-edge AI development
5
. Whether these companies will actually slow their work, whether regulators will step in, or whether geopolitical competition will drive even faster development remains uncertain as the industry navigates competing pressures around AI safety, market dominance, and national security.References
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