The pacing pledge

Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI and Google DeepMind are all on record backing a coordinated slowdown in frontier AI development, and Anthropic has started granting outside evaluators standing access — but no lab has cut spending, and China's government and Trump both reject the idea outright.

11 entries · Sep 13, 2026 to Sep 15, 2026 · 3 editions

  1. Sep 13, 2026

    A practitioner is calling the week's lab-backed pacing proposals self-serving, not safety-driven

    Armin Ronacher's September 12 post argues Amodei's pacing plan hands oversight to METR, which he says has 'strong ties to both OpenAI and Anthropic,' and predicts the real damage is economic concentration, not extinction — arguing open-weight models already provide 'built-in pacing' through proliferation. Ronacher

  2. Sep 13, 2026

    WATCHMusk, Sunak and Hassabis back Amodei's call to pace AI development

    Musk posted 'Dario is right' within an hour of Amodei's essay; Anthropic adviser Rishi Sunak echoed it; Google DeepMind's Hassabis called the direction 'correct,' citing DeepMind's own proposed frontier-AI standards body. CNBC · Hassabis, via ANI

  3. Sep 13, 2026

    WATCHOpenAI delays its IPO to 2027, citing AI safety concerns

    Altman told Fortune an IPO 'this year would be an ill-advised moment' given safety concerns, confirming 'not 2026' — the first concrete business move tied to the week's pacing debate. Fortune

  4. Sep 13, 2026

    WATCHNo lab has cut spending to match the slowdown talk

    Despite four public figures now endorsing Amodei's pacing call, Microsoft guides toward $175 billion in fiscal 2027 capex, Google Cloud grew 82% last quarter, and Nvidia guides Q3 revenue to $108 billion. Yahoo Finance

  5. Sep 13, 2026

    WATCHSanders says pacing is 'not enough,' renews his push for an outright AI pause

    Sanders called Amodei, Musk and Altman's pacing stance 'a start, but it's not enough': 'when you're racing towards a cliff, you don't ease off the gas, you hit the brakes.' He repeated his call for a legal pause on advanced AI. Soap Central

  6. Sep 14, 2026

    WATCHAnthropic to give outside evaluators permanent access; OpenAI commits to match

    Anthropic will give third-party evaluators like METR employee-level, standing access to verify safety practices and training runs. Altman called it 'a great idea' and pledged OpenAI will do the same. Amodei · CNBC

  7. Sep 14, 2026

    WATCHMicrosoft drafts its own AI 'Code of Conduct' for public comment

    Nadella said Microsoft will publish rules governing its first-party MAI models for public consultation, citing 'deliberate pacing' and floating its own embedded evaluators. Unite.AI

  8. Sep 14, 2026

    WATCHChina and Trump both reject the pacing call

    China's commerce ministry called Amodei's essay proof of 'US technological hegemony'; state media called it 'hostile.' Trump told reporters 'whoever wins AI wins,' dismissing the warnings as exaggerated. via ANI · NPR

  9. Sep 14, 2026

    WATCHAI stocks sell off as pacing talk lands, spending doesn't

    Nvidia fell 2.1% and AMD 4.8% premarket Monday; SoftBank dropped over 10% in Tokyo. Microsoft still guides toward $175 billion in fiscal 2027 capex, unchanged since Friday. Yahoo Finance

  10. Sep 15, 2026

    WATCHKamala Harris joins the pacing chorus, calls for a US-China treaty

    Harris called on Congress to legislate AI oversight 'at an urgent pace,' proposed a new federal AI-testing body, and urged a treaty with China capping how fast frontier capability advances. CNN

  11. Sep 15, 2026

    WATCHAnthropic's Jack Clark rebuts Trump on Fox News

    Clark told Fox's Bret Baier safety and beating China aren't in tension: 'The worst time to react to an exponential is when it's too late' — a lab figure making the case directly on conservative media. Mediaite