Fast AI Development Might Not Be the Problem

Recently, AI leaders have been talking about slowing down AI development. In particular, Dario Amodei of Anthropic and has pledged to “pace the frontier,” in a new blog post.

While AI figures such as Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk appear to agree with each other on pacing, other major players such as Nvidia’s Jensen Huang appear to disagree. Likewise, concerns about Chinese AI one day overpowering US models remain paramount to the US government.

Experts suggest AI leaders should turn their attention to increasing trust, instead of slowing down AI. They also warn that the US slowing down won’t necessarily mean others will do the same.

Anthropic CEO Says ‘Pace the Frontier’

A few days ago, Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei released a blog post titled, “We Must Pace the Frontier.” The post is a call for AI leaders to slow down the rapid development of AI models. 

Safety concerns around AI have once again been pulled into headlines following comments made by researcher Jacob Coxon, who resigned from Anthropic amid fears of unrestrained development leading to the end of humanity.

In a post on X, Coxon, who previously worked for OpenAI, claimed the people building AI “earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” Similarly, he claimed leaders are “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”

AI executives including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and SpaceX’s Elon Musk shared their agreement of Amodei’s post. While the post doesn’t mention Coxon’s recent comments, it does reference the OpenAI/Hugging Face breach.

“The calls from some of the world’s leading AI researchers and technology companies to slow the pace of frontier model development reflect a growing recognition that innovation and responsibility must advance together,” said CISO of Optiv Field, Kristin Lowery.

Lowery suggests accelerating capabilities must come with a significant understanding of how to govern and safely deploy AI, suggesting the call to slow down from leaders could be a positive one.

How Realistic Is Slowing Down AI Development?

It’s one thing for leaders to say they’re going to slow down, but the real question is what exactly this will look like. Amodei’s blog post does outline some strategies for how AI companies can achieve reduced development, and said Anthropic is “unilaterally committing” to one of them. Altman has chimed in to say OpenAI will do the same.

Despite support from Altman, Musk, and Microsoft, which released a new AI code of conduct yesterday, not all leaders agree with Amodei’s plan. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, for one, made quite a public show of where he stands at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles.

Huang received and answered a call from President Trump on-stage, where the topic was Amodei’s recent post.

“They’re just playing right in the hands of a lot of people that don’t want to see it happen,” Trump went on to say to the crowd. “That could be political people. It could also be China. And we’re not going to let that happen. It’s a hoax.”

“You’re right. We’re not going to let that happen, sir,” Huang responded, and the crowd applauded them.

Chinese AI competition is a major concern for the US government, and this has only ramped up as Chinese models continue to close the performance gap to US models, all while offering a lower prices. The insistence has always been that the US needs to be first ones to crack AI and superintelligence.

From an international perspective, Lowery makes another point about why slowing down could be dangerous. “AI innovation is occurring globally, and not every nation, organization, or threat actor shares the same values regarding transparency, safety, and responsible use. This creates a complex dynamic that increasingly resembles a technology arms race.”

“If responsible organizations dramatically slow innovation while less accountable actors continue advancing without guardrails, we risk creating unintended strategic disadvantages.” – Kristin Lowery, CISO at Optiv Field

Essentially, the US slowing down its own AI development won’t lead to everyone doing the same. Threat actors and hacker organizations could still develop rapidly and cause AI cyber attacks we’re unprepared for.

Why Leaders Should Focus on Building Trust

It’s been hard to trust AI leaders. Whether it’s the constant uncertainty around job losses, the fear of global cyber attacks, or just the end of humanity in general, the AI rhetoric has been far from pretty.

Beyond negative AI messaging, publications are consistently reporting on autonomous hacks and AI data breaches, which suggests we might not be properly prepared to understand and prevent against the dangers AI poses.

Pacing frontier models could be a way to ensure we’re ready to deal with the capabilities of these models. However, experts are saying there’s no reason why we can’t have both safety and high-performing AI.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, chief ethics scientist at Hugging Face Margaret Mitchell argued safety, privacy, and security must be built directly into AI systems, rather than being seen as a trade off to progress.

Lowery makes a similar point, and says the current debate is the wrong one. “In my view, the debate should move beyond whether to pause or accelerate AI, and focus instead on how to build trust into AI from the outset,” she said.

“History shows that transformative technologies rarely succeed through either unchecked innovation or excessive regulation alone; the most sustainable path is to encourage innovation that drives economic and societal value while implementing thoughtful safeguards that reduce risk and build trust.” – Kristin Lowery, CISO at Optiv Field

Ultimately, AI brings with it more risk the less leaders are willing to pay attention to safety and privacy. Future models should be developed through this lens, so we can reap the full benefits of AI, without risking something far greater.