Employees from Meta, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic sign letter urging for global effort to slow unchecked AI progress

More than 1,100 employees from some of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies have signed an open letter urging the US government to spearhead an international effort to develop mechanisms that could slow the pace of advanced AI development if it begins to outstrip humanity’s ability to understand or control it.

The letter, signed by 1,178 employees of frontier AI companies, argues that while artificial intelligence has the potential to deliver significant benefits, its rapid advancement also poses risks that current governance systems are ill-equipped to manage.

“AI could help create a dramatically better future, but that outcome is not guaranteed. The world’s leading AI companies believe they could be close to automating AI research. It is hard to predict exactly how much this will accelerate AI progress, but there is a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems,” the letter said.

The appeal comes as major AI labs race to build increasingly capable models, with several companies suggesting that AI systems may soon be able to assist in, or even automate, significant portions of AI research itself. Supporters of the letter argue that such a development could dramatically shorten the time between successive breakthroughs, leaving regulators and safety researchers struggling to keep pace.

Rather than calling for an immediate pause in AI development, the signatories are seeking the creation of technical and governance mechanisms that would allow governments to deliberately slow frontier AI progress if safety concerns demand it.

“To realize AI’s potential, industry, government, and society at large may need the option to buy time to address emerging risks, develop security measures, and strengthen oversight. But each company—and country—is under intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slow that acceleration. And today, the world lacks the technical and governance tools to deliberately pace frontier-wide progress,” the letter said.

The signatories said existing efforts to monitor and evaluate frontier AI systems provide a starting point, but argued that stronger international coordination will be necessary as models become more capable. They urged policymakers to develop shared safeguards before AI capabilities advance further.

“We request that the U.S. government support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development,” the letter said.

The initiative has drawn signatures from employees across several leading AI firms, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral AI and Thinking Machines Lab. The letter has also received public backing from OpenAI and Anthropic, with leaders at Anthropic among those who signed it.

The appeal reflects growing concern within the AI industry that competitive pressure among companies and countries could make it difficult for any single player to slow development voluntarily, even if future systems raise significant safety or security concerns.