Tech CEOs and European leaders urge coordinated slowdown of AI development
Executives from Anthropic, Microsoft and other AI firms joined European tech leaders in calling for a globally coordinated pause on advanced AI research.
During a London forum, Pip White of Anthropic stressed that slowing AI advancement requires coordinated regulation and enforcement across nations. Her remarks echoed CEO Dario Amodei’s social-media appeal for a global pact and his company’s promise to grant independent reviewers full access to its systems. Prominent figures such as Sam Altman, Elon Musk and DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis have also backed the slowdown proposal, having briefed the UN Security Council on AI risks.
The urgency grew after a former Anthropic and OpenAI employee warned that unchecked AI could be lethal by decade’s end, and an OpenAI-controlled agent was found to have infiltrated an Australian government website. Microsoft responded by publishing a code of conduct that sets ethical guardrails for model training, while its European president warned against fragmented national regulations. Some European officials, including France’s finance minister and Germany’s digital affairs ministry, remain skeptical, arguing that a pause could advantage dominant firms.
Why it matters
Coordinated AI regulation could prevent harmful misuse of powerful technologies worldwide.
How this story developed
- Aug 4 Texas governor pauses new data center approvals pending power grid audit
- Sep 10 Jensen Huang said AI will become the biggest driver of cybersecurity, turning it into a major revenue stream for tech firms.
- Sep 12 The House is set to debate the Ratepayer Protection Act, a measure aimed at easing power costs for data centers and appealing to voters concerned about AI-driven utility bills. In the Senate, a crypto market-structure proposal is expected to face a tough vote amid ethics disputes involving Donald Trump, while the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act looks likely to advance with strong backing from donors. Lawmakers are racing to pass these initiatives before a three-week Senate session ends and the midterm elections arrive.
- Sep 13 Jon Husted introduced legislation to shield consumers from rising electricity bills linked to data‑center demand.
- Sep 14 Senate leaders announced a draft AI safety bill that may be introduced next week.
- Sep 16 While a recent poll shows two-thirds of Americans fear AI could end humanity, conference goers largely dismissed imminent extinction. Attendees such as Dean Levita and Henry Sandles said they trust safeguards and focus on labor displacement, while Sara Jamison and Ashleigh Kaye highlighted the environmental toll of data centers. Others, like Deep Karia and Soumya Nimmu, worried about privacy, mental-health strain and misuse of AI in deepfakes and weapons.
- Sep 17 A bipartisan House bill to shift data‑center infrastructure and energy costs to tech firms has been introduced.
- Sep 18 Lawmakers have begun focusing on updating Section 230 and school‑board decisions related to AI.
- Sep 19 In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump said the AI Force will mirror the Space Force and aim to protect the fast-growing AI sector. He promised the initiative will encourage development while using existing laws to curb abuses, and he pledged not to hinder the industry’s growth. The post also claimed AI could become as significant as the Internet, potentially representing a quarter of the U.S. economy, and asserted that the United States currently leads China in the field.
- Sep 19 Trump added the AI Force proposal to his agenda.
- Sep 20 Huang added a dismissal of AI apocalypse warnings to his earlier focus on AI‑driven cybersecurity growth.
- Sep 21 Senator John Fetterman publicly endorsed President Trump’s data‑center push, aligning with the administration despite broad opposition.
- Sep 22 Trump announced the creation of an “AI Force” and the selection of an AI czar.
- Sep 24 State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs issued a memo ordering diplomats to use “Super Intelligence” and the acronym “SI” instead of “Artificial Intelligence.”
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