Tech Giants’ CEOs Unite in Calling for AI to Be Braked

Calls to curb the development of artificial intelligence (AI) are growing louder. Most recently, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said AI development needs to be equipped with an emergency brake.

He stressed that AI systems should be built with safeguards and independent controls. Relevant parties should also have the authority to pause or shut down an AI model while it is carrying out a task.

“We need to equip non-deterministic models with strong deterministic system design, human controls and reliable operating procedures, and establish industry standards where existing standards are inadequate,” he said in a post on X, as quoted by CNBC International on Tuesday (13 October 2026).

Nadella also said AI systems should be designed around the principle of observability. This includes model diversity, human-readable records of model actions, continuous system testing, independent controls and auditability, risk containment, and incident disclosure.

“A trustworthy superintelligence system is not one with the most trustworthy model, but one that makes us least dependent on, or blindly trusting of, that model,” Nadella said.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had previously called for the substantial risks posed by AI to be addressed jointly by governments and companies. OpenAI chief Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who leads xAI, supported his remarks.

A researcher who has left Anthropic also warned of the importance of slowing the pace of AI progress. If this is not done, the researcher predicted, humanity could be brought to the brink of extinction.

“If we do not slow the current pace of progress, we will probably die soon,” the researcher said.

While technology executives have sounded the alarm over AI risks, US President Donald Trump has taken the opposite position. He has dismissed concerns about AI and continued to urge the United States to stay ahead of China.