The AI industry has taken a doomer turn. What now?

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay calling for a brake on the pace of LLM development, citing looming dangers ranging from cyberattacks and bioterrorism to economic destabilization. The heads of other top US AI labs—OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind chairman Demis Hassabis, and SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk—voiced support for the stance. This newfound alignment follows a history of public feuds, legal battles, and foundational rifts regarding the oversight of dangerous technologies. Now, leaders across the top labs appear to agree that the latest generation of LLMs carries safety concerns that require industry-wide reflection. While critics might view calls for a slowdown with cynicism given upcoming trillion-dollar IPOs and the delicate balance of reassuring investors while demonstrating immense technological power, the overarching vibe at the top of these AI firms has demonstrably shifted.