OpenAI and Anthropic Back Petition Urging US to Slow AI Development

Two major players in the artificial intelligence race, OpenAI and Anthropic, have officially endorsed a petition urging the United States government to intervene and slow the pace of AI development if its advancement is deemed too fast and risky. The petition, released on Tuesday (28/7) local time, was signed by hundreds of employees from both companies and involved staff from Google, Meta, and other leading technology industry figures. This move marks a rare moment when fiercely competing companies agree on the need for stricter external oversight. The open letter warns that the industry is already very close to the stage of automated AI research. This development is feared to potentially allow the technology to grow exponentially beyond human control. ‘We ask the US government to support international efforts in developing the technical tools and governance necessary to deliberately regulate the pace of frontier AI development,’ the petition stated. The international coordination effort to limit AI development is considered a monumental diplomatic task. Some experts liken it to the implementation of nuclear arms control treaties, but in the form of software that can be freely distributed via the internet. Although OpenAI CEO Sam Altman did not personally sign the petition, he stated in a podcast that regulating the speed of AI development might indeed be necessary. OpenAI is targeting the construction of an automated AI researcher by early 2028. However, not everyone in Silicon Valley agrees with this slowdown. Many argue that AI technology must continue to be pursued aggressively to find cures for new diseases, drive innovation, and maintain US military superiority in the geopolitical rivalry with China. Andrew Yoon from CivAI noted that the involvement of prominent names on this list indicates that AI labs and their staff are now explicitly beginning to discuss international governance as an urgent necessity before AI models reach a point where they can no longer be safely controlled.