US State Lawmakers Urge Frontier AI Labs to Voluntarily Slow Development
In early September, US state lawmakers behind major AI regulatory efforts jointly called on frontier AI companies to voluntarily slow development until safety work catches up, centered on a "Mutually Agreed Pacing" framework proposed by New York Assemblymember Alex Bores.
Confirmed
- Alex Bores issued a statement urging frontier AI companies to put forward a Mutually Agreed Pacing (MAP) framework: companies would mutually coordinate slowing frontier model training, verifiable by independent third parties.
- The framework is voluntary in nature, does not depend on government action, and does not conflict with it.
- Signatories include New York Senator Gounardes, California Senator Scott Wiener, and lawmakers from Illinois, Delaware and other states—largely the driving forces behind major state AI bills such as California's SB 53.
- The statement asks companies to "jointly eliminate" the risk of catastrophe from racing to build highly capable systems without first solving alignment and safety, adopting a "paced" approach until safety catches up.
Why it matters
- This is the first time state legislators have used a joint statement to push the "race risk" problem onto AI companies themselves, attempting to substitute or supplement legislative mandates with industry self-discipline plus third-party verification.
- MAP's voluntary mutual-verification design sidesteps stalled federal and state legislation and offers an executable template for future state regulation; whether frontier labs respond is worth watching.
2026-09-04 ~ 2026-09-05 · 5 related posts
- State AI regulation lawmakers jointly call on AI companies to slow development until safety catches up — sjgadler · 2026-09-04
- NY Assemblymember Alex Bores Proposes Third-Party-Verifiable MAP Framework for Frontier AI — sjgadler · 2026-09-04
- NY Legislator Proposes MAP Framework for Frontier AI as State Laws Fill Federal Void — sjgadler · 2026-09-04
- US state lawmakers call on frontier AI labs to adopt a mutual pacing framework — austinc3301 · 2026-09-05
- US State Lawmakers Urge AI Companies to Adopt Verifiable Framework to Slow Development Until Safety Catches Up — EvanHub · 2026-09-05