More than 1,100 employees and researchers from leading artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Meta, have signed an open letter urging the US government to help develop the technical and governance mechanisms needed to slow the pace of AI development if future systems outstrip society's ability to manage them.
The letter, titled "Pacing the Frontier," had received 1,171 signatures at the time of publication. Rather than calling for an immediate pause in AI development, the signatories argue that governments and the industry should establish the capability to deliberately slow progress if advanced AI systems begin developing faster than they can be safely understood or governed.
The letter states that "there is a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems," adding that the ability to slow development could provide time to improve security, oversight and governance.
The open letter has been signed by senior executives, chief scientists and AI safety researchers from some of the world's leading AI companies.
Notable signatories include:
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic
Jack Clark and Jared Kaplan, Anthropic co-founders
Jakub Pachocki, Chief Scientist at OpenAI
Shengjia Zhao, Chief Scientist at Meta
Anca Dragan, Head of AI Safety and Alignment at Google DeepMind
OpenAI and Anthropic have formally endorsed the initiative, although OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is not among the individual signatories. Meta declined to comment, while Google had not publicly responded at the time of publication.
The signatories warned about increasingly capable AI systems, including the possibility of recursive self-improvement, and urged governments to prepare mechanisms to slow development if safety and oversight fail to keep pace.
The appeal follows OpenAI's recent disclosure involving experimental AI models and reflects growing calls within the industry for stronger AI governance, though it does not advocate an immediate pause in development.