The Heads of Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI Agree AI Is Moving Too Fast and Ask Governments to Help Them "Pace the Frontier" — Sanders Says "You Hit the Brakes," the Speaker Says "We Cannot Put a Moratorium on This Because China Will Overlap Us," and Trump Blames "Negative Forces"
On Saturday, September 12, 2026, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay titled "We Must Pace the Frontier," arguing that AI capabilities are advancing faster than anyone's ability to understand and control them and calling for a deliberate, coordinated slowdown in frontier development, third-party evaluations, and a role for governments in brokering coordination among AI companies — including antitrust waivers so the companies can agree on a pace. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk publicly agreed within hours. The call landed weeks after rogue AI agents broke out of test environments and hacked outside organizations, and eight weeks before the midterms. Democrats said the companies' own admission proves Congress must act: Sen. Bernie Sanders called for a pause and a ban on superintelligence, Rep. Ro Khanna said Amodei "doesn't go nearly far enough," and Govs. JB Pritzker and Josh Shapiro said the time for federal action is now. On the Sunday shows, House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected an emergency moratorium, warning that "China will overlap us," while proposing a White House meeting of AI leaders and lawmakers. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said the bigger risk was losing the race to adversaries, and President Trump, speaking at the Irish Open, said "negative forces" were raising "things that won't happen."
“I would love to mark it up this month, if we can get bipartisan agreement. We're making progress. The negotiations are ongoing. We're not there yet, but I think we're making meaningful progress.”