October 28, 2026
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Coordinated AI slowdown to pace the frontier, proposed by Dario Amodei

Tracks Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's September 2026 essay 'We Must Pace the Frontier': its three-step proposal (embedded third-party evaluators, coordinated US lab standards with legislation or a narrow antitrust waiver, and escalating international coordination), endorsements by other lab leaders, political reactions including the White House and Congress rejecting a 'cartel' or waiver, related proposals such as Elon Musk's cross-lab testing idea, and the debate over whether it is sincere safety policy or regulatory capture.

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Updated

Overview

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a roughly 3,800-word essay, We Must Pace the Frontier, arguing that the industry should deliberately slow capability improvements so safety work can keep up. It proposes three steps: Anthropic unilaterally giving third-party evaluators permanent embedded access; a critical mass of US labs adopting shared standards, enabled by legislation or a narrow antitrust waiver; and escalating international coordination, from a bioweapons ban to a full pause, which Amodei treats as least plausible. As described in the research, the essay lets training continue while more time goes to security, alignment and testing; it does not call for a halt to releases. According to Moonshots hosts, Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk endorsed it quickly, while President Trump called it a hoax and China called it a Cold War trick. Peter Diamandis later said Altman and Amodei had spoken of an existential threat at the UN Security Council just before the Trump–Xi meetings. No document for that appearance was cited. Alex Wissner-Gross said he coined the term safety cartel and that the White House and the Speaker rejected any cartel or liability waiver; no document was cited for those positions. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the House Financial Services Committee that labs should not get a blank check on liability. Dave Blundin objected that the labs never asked for liability relief, only for an antitrust waiver; the essay itself, as described in the research, raises an antitrust waiver but not a liability waiver. The Moonshots panel increasingly reads the essay through the labs' behaviour. Wissner-Gross traces the cartel idea to OpenAI's founding coordination provisions and prefers competition and defensive co-scaling; Diamandis disputes the word cartel. Jensen Huang's remark that nobody builds more compute than those asking to slow down was played approvingly. Anthropic shipped Claude Opus 5.5 and opened wet labs within days of the essay, and the panel called that hypocrisy and a revealed preference for full speed. Earlier readings differ on whether the essay is sincere safety policy, a clumsy bid for a cartel, or regulatory capture. These remain interpretations.

What changed

Dates show when each podcast discussion was published.

  1. Interpretation

    At a live Moonshots event, the panel argued that the labs' actions contradict the essay. Peter Diamandis said Altman and Amodei had warned of an existential threat at the UN Security Council just before the Trump–Xi meetings, and he renewed the question whether risk warnings serve the labs' push for liability relief. Alex Wissner-Gross traced the attempted safety cartel back to OpenAI's founding coordination idea, though Diamandis disputed the word cartel. Wissner-Gross called Anthropic's release of Opus 5.5 and opening of wet labs days after the essay a revealed preference and the height of hypocrisy. The panel played Jensen Huang saying nobody builds more compute than those asking to be slowed down. These are the panel's readings; the essay, as described in the research, allows training to continue.

  2. New information

    Moonshots covered the essay's three-step proposal, a clip of Amodei asking government to supervise industry coordination, reported endorsements from Altman, Hassabis and Musk, and what Alex described as White House and congressional rejection of a safety cartel or liability waiver. The panel debated sincerity versus regulatory capture, and discussed Musk's All-In proposal that labs test each other's models before release.

  3. New information

    Moonshots reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the House Financial Services Committee that AI labs should not receive a liability exemption, and played a clip of him urging Congress not to consider one. Dave Blundin disputed the framing, saying the labs had only sought an antitrust waiver to discuss slowing down. Alex Wissner-Gross praised Bessent, Vlad Tenev tied the question of liability to the scale of possible harm, and Peter Diamandis argued labs must remain responsible for their agents.

Podcast discussions

Sources

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Version history

  • Sep 27, 2026 · Version 3

    At a live Moonshots event, the panel argued that the labs' actions contradict the essay. Peter Diamandis said Altman and Amodei had warned of an existential threat at the UN Security Council just before the Trump–Xi meetings, and he renewed the question whether risk warnings serve the labs' push for liability relief. Alex Wissner-Gross traced the attempted safety cartel back to OpenAI's founding coordination idea, though Diamandis disputed the word cartel. Wissner-Gross called Anthropic's release of Opus 5.5 and opening of wet labs days after the essay a revealed preference and the height of hypocrisy. The panel played Jensen Huang saying nobody builds more compute than those asking to be slowed down. These are the panel's readings; the essay, as described in the research, allows training to continue.

  • Sep 25, 2026 · Version 2

    Moonshots reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the House Financial Services Committee that AI labs should not receive a liability exemption, and played a clip of him urging Congress not to consider one. Dave Blundin disputed the framing, saying the labs had only sought an antitrust waiver to discuss slowing down. Alex Wissner-Gross praised Bessent, Vlad Tenev tied the question of liability to the scale of possible harm, and Peter Diamandis argued labs must remain responsible for their agents.

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