Anthropic CEO Calls For AI Slowdown Amid Concerns For Human Safety: Is It Possible?

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has publicly called for AI companies to “slow down” the development of the powerful technology, citing mounting safety risks amid a debate triggered by Jacob Coxon, a former researcher at the company.

In an essay on his website, Amodei shared a framework for responsible development of AI and said, “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.” His views were later endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI founder Elon Musk.

This came after Coxon, 27, resigned from Anthropic and sounded the alarm over the risks of rapidly evolving AI. He accused AI companies of “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence

and gambling with our lives”, adding that AI had the capability of killing humans by the end of the decade.

How Did AI Evolve?

While AI is everywhere nowadays, it has existed as a concept long before the age of computers. Several mainstream media, including books by HG Wells and Mary Shelley, and movies like The Matrix or Terminator, have conceptualised what AI would look like in modern life.

AI became a responsibility in the 20th century as the theory and understanding of mathematics, reasoning and logic evolved. British computer scientist Alan Turing laid the foundation of AI through the Turing Test, an experiment designed to see if a machine could be called “intelligent.” An AI workshop was held at Dartmouth College in 1956, when AI officially became an academic discipline.

In the 21st century, AI has become a part of everyday life with the emergence of companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI. Almost every big company has incorporated AI in some aspect of their business, with far-reaching effects in society.

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Concerns Over AI Use

The increasing competition between companies to dominate AI development, accompanied by countries like the US and China fighting for leadership in hardware and foundational models, has led to a rapid evolution of AI that has come to dominate almost every aspect of our social lives.

From companies like Microsoft, Anthropic and Nvidia competing in building new large language models (LLMs) to Chinese companies like Tencent and Deepseek making new inroads, the realm of AI has fundamentally shifted from general application to a strategic priority.

We are now in a time when AI plays a prominent role in almost every aspect of our lives, from our day-to-day activities to design, content creation and lifestyle habits. There have been heightened risks that AI could also lead the next era of warfare, replacing human control and decision-making, as seen with Anthropic’s dispute with the Trump administration over safety safeguards in the use of weapons and mass surveillance.

The AI industry has long been concerned about the pace of the technology’s advancement, with executives repeatedly urging governments to act to regulate the technology and cooperate to set worldwide safety standards. Several US lawmakers have also urged new rules to govern AI systems after Coxon’s warnings.

Is An AI Slowdown Possible?

Theoretically, yes. Amodei’s call for an AI slowdown evoked a rare united response from big tech companies, and a cooperative measure to slow the development of the technology is possible.

However, this path is fraught with challenges. Firstly, several AI firms have often fluctuated in their predictions about the potential harm of their products, sometimes warning of an apocalypse and sometimes promising a utopian world. They have also spent millions of dollars preparing advanced models and lobbying for favourable legislation on AI, while offering little insight into how their models work.

Secondly, AI is more than just a competition between different companies. It also reflects a global struggle for tech leadership. The United States is a proponent of a global AI arms race and is attempting to starve China of resources to gain a technological edge. On the other hand, China controls the largest share of rare earth minerals crucial for AI development and is fighting hard to catch up to American firms, proposing a community for open-source AI during the recently concluded BRICS Summit in India.

The race for AI supremacy is at the heart of the US-China rivalry. US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his priority to make sure that America holds the edge in developing the technology faster than China and has told other countries to pick sides. The competition is widely believed to set the course for the future of industrial dominance.

On Sunday, Trump downplayed the risks of AI, citing competition from China and telling reporters “whoever wins AI, wins”. On the other hand, China also rejected “threat narratives” over AI governance, pitching for open and inclusive AI and pushing back against “malicious competition.”

While the future of AI is uncertain, such responses suggest that the mode of development of the tech may change, but a specific slowdown is unlikely due to the fierce US-China competition.