Staff members at OpenAI and Anthropic PBC are sharing a petition that calls on the U.S. government to support a mechanism for intentionally slowing the pace of artificial intelligence development when necessary, aiming to prevent progress from moving too quickly.
This initiative follows a recent disclosure by OpenAI that its tools had inadvertently breached another company's internal systems. Sources familiar with the matter say employees from several leading AI labs have circulated an open letter to colleagues, urging the U.S. to back international efforts that could set a deliberate pace for the development of more advanced AI systems.
A copy of the petition warns that as AI research becomes more automated, the speed of AI development "could potentially" outpace humanity's ability to "understand or control" it. The document states, "The U.S. government should support international collaboration to develop the necessary technical and governance tools to consciously regulate the pace of automated AI development."
One of the sources indicated the petition could be made public as early as this week, though they requested anonymity as the matter is not yet official. It is currently unclear how many employees plan to sign the document. OpenAI and Anthropic have not responded to requests for comment.
The petition echoes recent calls from several prominent AI industry leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, who have advocated for the creation of a new international oversight body to review and set standards for frontier AI models.
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