Donald Trump’s administration has rejected calls from top artificial intelligence firms to slow down development, stating that any industry-wide pause must be initiated by the companies themselves.
Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, published an essay on Saturday urging the US government to regulate AI developers as part of a broader effort to temper the technology’s rapid growth. The proposal drew unusual support from OpenAI chief Sam Altman and Elon Musk, owner of the Grok chatbot, following a week of heated debate over safety risks. Microsoft boss Satya Nadella also advocated for a measured approach to development.
David Sacks, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, responded on X. He noted that while he supported a responsible decision to pause if unreleased models posed a genuine threat, companies should not expect permission from others. He argued that antitrust law does not need to be suspended to form a cartel and questioned whether the motivation to slow down was purely altruistic.
Amodei asked the government to allow competing firms to collaborate on standards without breaching antitrust laws, either through official participation or a specific waiver. He also sought help establishing international coordination, including with the Chinese Communist Party. Sacks countered that China was unlikely to join any global agreement.
Fears that the US might lose its lead to China have driven the administration to oppose slowing the pace of development. During a visit to Ireland, Trump said negative forces were raising concerns that would not come to pass. He added that the US was already ahead of China in AI and wanted to keep it that way because whoever wins the technology wins.
The US largely views China’s AI ecosystem as an economic and national security threat. The country has previously lagged behind Chinese advances. House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN on Sunday that an emergency regulatory session could cause the US to lose the race to China, a threat to every American. He insisted there must be balance and steady hands at the wheel.
Meanwhile, companies say they will take voluntary steps to rebuild public trust. On Sunday night, Sam Altman committed to Amodei’s proposal to give embedded third-party evaluators employee-level access to check safety practices and report incidents. Altman acknowledged these measures would have significant costs. He wrote on X that pacing would be well worth this cost and that no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness.
What it means
Developers face a choice between voluntary internal checks or waiting for government action that may not come. The administration’s stance suggests that maintaining a competitive edge against China takes priority over coordinated industry slowdowns.
