OpenAI is considering slowing down the development of its most advanced artificial intelligence systems. Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that CEO Sam Altman told employees this week that the company could reduce the pace of its AI work and ideally coordinate such a slowdown with other leading AI firms.
The discussion comes amid increasing concern within the AI industry over whether technological progress is moving faster than companies can safely manage. According to the report, OpenAI has already slowed certain aspects of model development and paused some internal AI training efforts in recent months because of safety concerns. In July, Altman also said he had spoken with White House officials about the "need" to regulate the pace of AI development.
Researchers are increasingly warning about AI risks
The latest internal discussions at OpenAI come as a growing number of researchers and AI employees express concern about the speed at which the technology is advancing and the potential threat it could pose to human civilisation.
OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki recently highlighted the dangers associated with advanced AI. In a lengthy OpenAI blog post titled An Alien Mind, Pachocki argued that AI companies need to deliberately decide how they want to proceed. "I do think this is where the current path leads, and we all need to make a conscious choice on how to proceed," he wrote.
According to Pachocki, there are two primary options: strengthen AI safety measures and monitoring while keeping humans involved, or "coordinating to slow down future development as needed to build confidence in these measures".
His warning comes as other researchers in the field are also questioning the industry's race to create increasingly powerful AI systems.
Earlier this week, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from the company and accused both Anthropic and OpenAI of "gambling with our lives" by competing to develop superintelligent AI. In a social media post, Coxon said people working on AI believe the technology could "kill us all by the end of the decade".
"Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. More thoughts below," he wrote on X.
Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger also supported the warning. "We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to," he wrote on X.
Coxon is also not the only researcher to raise concerns. Joe Benton and Josh Engels, who recently left positions at Anthropic and Google DeepMind respectively, also spoke out this week about the rapid development of AI and called for greater openness about the risks associated with the technology.
In late July, more than 1,000 employees from major AI companies signed a petition demanding a mechanism that could slow the industry's development pace. Several AI safety researchers have also stepped down from leading AI laboratories in recent months.
At the same time, US lawmakers are pushing for restrictions on the development of advanced AI.
US Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar have said they intend to introduce the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act. The proposed legislation would permanently prohibit the development and deployment of superintelligent AI. It would also impose a temporary halt on advanced AI development until a federal regulator establishes appropriate safety regulations.
