Altman Backs Federal AI Safety Rules, Says U.S. Pressure Should Not Justify Recklessness

Altman wrote, “We welcome a federal framework that sets consistent safety requirements for frontier AI,” adding that “no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness.” He said AI progress could go “very badly” in two ways: losing “control of the future to AI” and allowing too much power to concentrate around a single person or company.

The remarks followed Amodei’s essay on Saturday urging AI companies to slow how quickly they improve their most advanced models. Amodei wrote that since roughly this summer, AI has been advancing drastically faster, driven primarily by AI’s growing ability to build the next generation of AI. Left unchecked, he said, it could outrun the ability to understand and control these systems.

Amodei proposed a three-step plan aimed at tempering the pace of development without sacrificing commercial advantage or the U.S. lead in AI. It includes each frontier AI company giving external evaluators “employee-like access,” a step Anthropic said it was committing to now. Amodei also called for frontier AI labs to establish common safety standards, limit the rate of unchecked AI progress, and attempt to coordinate efforts globally.

Altman said Saturday in a brief post on X that he agreed with Amodei that AI companies should “pace the frontier.” He added that committing to independent evaluators with employee-like access is “a great idea, and we will do the same.” In his Monday post, he said consistent rules to manage frontier risk are a good idea. But he stressed, “When we talk about ‘pacing’, we do not mean ‘stopping’. Progress has been rapid and will continue to be.”

Altman concluded that pacing would be “well worth this cost” and that capabilities should not get ahead of alignment and monitoring. “Where we will need the help of our government is for international coordination. But first we should do what we can ourselves,” he wrote.

The comments exposed a split among political and business leaders. President Donald Trump said Sunday that a slowdown was not needed and would jeopardize America’s lead in AI over China, CNBC reported. AI stocks were down Monday as investors digested the remarks. Lawmakers in Washington are scrambling to address calls for safeguards, while safety concerns have grown since an Anthropic researcher quit last week and warned the industry was not taking the issue seriously enough, prompting other employees at Anthropic and rival OpenAI to publicly warn of catastrophic risks.

Many AI safety fears revolve around models developing the ability to improve their own performance, a technique known as recursive self-improvement, or RSI. Meanwhile, Anthropic and OpenAI are preparing for what are expected to be historic IPOs. Altman ruled out going public in 2026 in an interview with Fortune published Saturday.

Editor's Summary Altman’s call for federal safety requirements and independent evaluators aligns him with Amodei’s push to pace frontier AI development, even as Trump opposes a slowdown and AI stocks fell Monday. The disagreement leaves Washington lawmakers and AI companies to weigh safety, competition with China, and commercial pressure ahead of possible IPOs.