1,386 Frontier AI Lab Employees Sign 'Pacing the Frontier' Letter Urging US to Slow Automated AI Research
sterlingcrispin · x · 2026-09-13
A statement signed by 1,386 employees of frontier AI companies argues labs are close to automating AI research and capability growth may accelerate beyond humanity's ability to control it. Since no company or country can unilaterally slow down amid competitive pressure, they ask the US government to back an international effort to build technical and governance tools for deliberately pacing frontier-wide AI progress.
Signatories include John Schulman, who hopes it establishes common knowledge on coordination mechanisms and urges labs to design them voluntarily, and Shengjia Zhao, who warns frontier models will soon exceed the best humans on nearly every intelligence metric. The author notes the idea is sound but implementation is the hard part.
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