Why Are AI’s Biggest Companies Asking to Slow Down?
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The Text
Why are AI’s biggest companies suddenly asking to slow down?
By Christina Comben, staff writer, reviewed by Bryan O’Shea, staff editor
Why are AI’s biggest companies suddenly asking to slow down? This has been the defining question in the AI space for years, with speed being the primary characteristic of the race. Build, spend, release, and repeat, with little regard for potential risks.
For years, AI researchers estimated a 15% to 20% chance of AI going catastrophically wrong. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei raised the stakes in 2025, stating a 25% probability of "things go[ing] really, really badly." Even earlier, in 2014, xAI chief Elon Musk warned:
“We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.”
And OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged in 2015 that AI could lead to the end of the world, but that in the meantime, "great companies" would be created.
So, what’s changed? Why are these companies now advocating for slowing down?
Over the weekend, Amodei published an essay calling for a "paced" development of frontier AI, warning that AI capabilities are advancing faster than the industry’s ability to understand and control them. He suggested that the internet could be taken over by AI swarms within six to 12 months. Altman agreed, stating the world deserves the "confidence" that these companies will act responsibly. Musk also backed Amodei’s proposal, simply commenting, "Dario is right."
The concern is not limited to these companies. On Monday, UN rights chief Volker Türk called for "urgent action" on frontier AI, highlighting "unprecedented risks."
If these companies genuinely believe capability is outrunning control, the risks seem to be mounting. Or is there another explanation? Have AI labs truly hit a new frontier?
Amodei’s essay points to AI systems becoming more autonomous, including a recent incident where OpenAI’s AI agents hacked their way out of a controlled testing environment and compromised Hugging Face’s AI platform. He also discusses the prospect of recursive self-improvement (RSI), where AI systems can help build better versions of themselves.