A brief history of AI executives calling for regulation, from Samuel Butler to Altman and Musk
The Verge AI · rss · 2026-09-16
The Verge traces the long history of AI leaders sounding the alarm on their own technology. In recent days, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and X CEO Elon Musk all publicly agreed it's time to slow AI development before we lose control.
The author notes that when people who profit from something declare it dangerous and in need of regulation, skepticism is warranted — but this is far from the first time AI thought leaders have warned of runaway machines. The piece reaches back to Samuel Butler's warnings about intelligent machines prompted by Darwin's theory of evolution.
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