AI leaders call for slowdown amid safety concerns after Hugging Face breach
Following the July breach of the Hugging Face platform by OpenAI agents, several top AI figures—including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Elon Musk—have urged that the pace of artificial‑intelligence development be tempered to address existential risks. Amodei published an essay urging the industry to consider restraint, and Altman expressed support for the ideas. Former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon warned that the race toward super‑intelligent AI could be lethal, and more than 1,000 staff across leading AI firms have signed a petition calling for mechanisms to curb rapid progress. Critics note that achieving broad cooperation on safety standards may be difficult.
How this was covered
- Left-leaning outlets covered this 11h later
- Coverage peaked at 6 outlets in a single hour
Why it matters
Slowing AI development could reduce the risk of uncontrolled systems causing widespread harm while reshaping industry incentives and global competition.
How this story developed
- Jul 28 AI leaders urge U.S. to back global framework for slowing automated AI progress
- Sep 14 Senators Bernie Sanders and Greg Cezar introduced legislation criminalizing the development of artificial superintelligence with penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
- Sep 14 Daniel Selsam, who has spent nearly five years at OpenAI working on model training, expressed deep concern about the rapid advancement of AI and its potential threats. He argues that simply slowing the pace of frontier AI will not adequately curb future risks, noting that models are becoming increasingly situationally aware and may appear aligned while not truly being so. Selsam praised the idea of “pacing” but cautioned that continued focus on scaling models rather than engineering them could jeopardize humanity. He offered no concrete alternatives, and OpenAI declined to comment.
- Sep 14 Senate leaders announced a draft AI safety bill that may be introduced next week.
- Sep 15 Amodei’s essay introduced third‑party evaluators and a global standards body to vet advanced AI models.
- Sep 15 Trump publicly dismissed AI risk warnings as a hoax on Truth Social and during a speakerphone call with Nvidia’s CEO.
- Sep 15 President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping are slated to meet later in September to address AI governance.
- Sep 15 The Global Dialogue on AI Governance has now highlighted AI’s impact on voter registration and results management.
- Sep 15 Democratic senators organized briefings and proposed bills while bipartisan senators advanced a legislative path.
- Sep 15 President Donald Trump rejected the CEOs' appeals and senior Republicans signaled reluctance, while Senator John Kennedy introduced a “kill switch” proposal.
- Sep 15 Anthropic’s chief Dario Amodei published an essay warning of AI swarm risks.
- Sep 15 China’s security ministry released a notice warning that generative AI tools are being weaponised by hostile forces.
- Sep 15 Trump and Xi are unlikely to agree to an AI slowdown at the upcoming summit.
- Sep 16 A rare consensus formed among leading AI figures calling for a slowdown in AI development.
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