Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has triggered a wave of commentary from tech and political figures after publishing an essay, "We Must Pace the Frontier," arguing that AI development should be deliberately slowed. His proposal centres on independent oversight of AI safety practices, coordination between AI companies in democratic nations, and, where feasible, cooperation between democratic and authoritarian governments. The essay has drawn a mix of support and criticism, exposing divisions between industry leaders who favour some form of regulation and political figures wary of government intervention.

Amodei's plan involves embedding third-party evaluators to verify companies' safety commitments, with Anthropic unilaterally adopting this step itself; he stressed that "pacing" does not mean halting technical progress. OpenAI's Sam Altman voiced agreement, backing a federal safety framework and independent evaluators, while Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis and SpaceX's Elon Musk both endorsed the essay's direction. In contrast, US President Donald Trump dismissed the need for guardrails beyond his own administration's oversight, accusing critics of a "sick conspiracy" benefiting China, and Vice President JD Vance suggested AI firms lobbying for regulation resembled a "trojan horse."