Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk backed the direction of Dario Amodei’s September 12 proposal to pace frontier AI, but their endorsements did not amount to agreement on how it should work. Altman supported pacing and evaluator access, Hassabis left the details unresolved, and Musk’s three-word post offered no implementation details.

The 21 reactions split over who should slow development, who should evaluate frontier systems and whether governments must impose stronger limits. David Sacks supported voluntary restraint while rejecting Amodei’s framework. Bernie Sanders sought a pause on advanced AI development and a superintelligence ban. Chamath Palihapitiya warned about constraints on open source and competition, while Heidy Khlaaf questioned evaluator independence.

President Donald Trump downplayed AI risks during a visit to Ireland on Sunday, saying critics were raising concerns about things that would not happen. He said he wanted the United States to retain its AI lead over China but did not directly address the proposed slowdown.

Who backs Amodei’s proposal?

Selected reactions · September 12–13, 2026

SupportingNeutral / mixedAgainst
PersonRoleIn their wordsPosition
Sam AltmanCEO, OpenAI
“I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier.”
Source ↗		SupportingSupports pacing and evaluator access
Demis HassabisChairman, Google DeepMind; chief scientist, Alphabet
“The details need working through, but the direction is correct for meeting this critical moment.”
Source ↗		SupportingSupports the direction; details unresolved
Elon MuskCEO, SpaceX; founder, xAI
“Dario is right”
Source ↗		SupportingEndorsement without implementation details
Andrej KarpathyAI researcher and educator; OpenAI founding member
“I love this and really hope we can come together as an industry and make it happen.”
Source ↗		SupportingSupports industry cooperation
Scott WuCEO, Cognition
“Very glad to see agreement on this across the industry.”
Source ↗		SupportingWelcomes agreement across the industry
Clément DelangueCEO, Hugging Face
“It's now clear that alignment is critical and won't be solved behind the closed doors of a handful of frontier labs.”
Source ↗		SupportingOffers an open evaluation initiative
Darren JonesLabour MP, Bristol North West
“Once again, AI companies are calling on governments to play their role.”
Source ↗		SupportingCalls for government action
Brian SchatzU.S. senator, Democrat, Hawaii
“I am still studying this but it’s a reasonable start, and takes seriously the proposition that we need real proposals that can be enacted rapidly.”
Source ↗		SupportingQualified support; still studying the plan
Alex TabarrokEconomist, George Mason University
“the capture story for an AI pause doesn't fit.”
Source ↗		SupportingDefends the proposal against capture claims
Aaron LevieCo-founder and CEO, Box
“Any “slow down” hinges on broad participation, which from a game theory standpoint isn’t likely until the risks are more severe and obvious.”
Source ↗		Neutral / mixedQualified support; doubts global participation
Sriram KrishnanFormer White House AI policy adviser
“on the idea of evaluators: think it's important that we have a distributed ecosystem of indepedent evaluators.”
Source ↗		Neutral / mixedProposes multiple independent evaluators
David SacksCo-founder, Craft Ventures; former White House AI adviser
“So go ahead and pace the frontier. You are the ones setting it.”
Source ↗		Neutral / mixedBacks voluntary restraint; rejects the framework
Donald TrumpPresident of the United States
“You have a lot of very negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing it up and they're bringing up things that won't happen,” Trump said.
Source ↗		Downplays AI risksSays the U.S. must retain its AI lead over China; did not directly address a slowdown. Remarks during a visit to Ireland, September 13.
Mike JohnsonSpeaker of the U.S. House; Republican, Louisiana
“resist Congress jumping in and imposing some sort of emergency moratorium.”
Source ↗		Opposes an emergency moratoriumSupports safety measures; calls for companies to act. Comments on CNN and NBC, September 13.
Bernie SandersU.S. senator, independent, Vermont
“That’s a start, but it’s not enough.”
Source ↗		Neutral / mixedWants a pause on advanced AI development and a superintelligence ban
John CornynU.S. senator, Republican, Texas
“Will China?”
Source ↗		Neutral / mixedQuestions whether China would participate
Chamath PalihapitiyaFounder and CEO, Social Capital
“Dario makes the case to stop open source and concentrate enormous technological and economic power with Anthropic.”
Source ↗		AgainstSees restrictions on open source and competition
Steven SinofskyBoard partner, Andreessen Horowitz; former Windows president
“He can just do this rather than calling for it. It literally just takes an email from a founder-CEO.”
Source ↗		AgainstSays Amodei could act without waiting
Heidy KhlaafChief AI scientist, AI Now Institute
“How is Anthropic pushing regulatory capture?”
Source ↗		AgainstChallenges evaluator independence
Guillermo RauchCEO, Vercel
“And they won’t be slowed down with “embedded evaluators.””
Source ↗		AgainstArgues adversaries will not slow down
Josh GottheimerU.S. representative, Democrat, New Jersey
“We can’t rely on self-policing and third party audits.”
Source ↗		AgainstRejects self-policing; wants mandatory rules

Positions are editorial classifications of responses to Amodei’s proposal. Neutral / mixed includes conditional support, procedural suggestions, and calls for stronger action. Quotes are excerpts; links provide context. These reactions are not a representative survey. Criticism of motives or evaluator independence remains the speaker’s view.

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Editor-in-Chief and founder of Implicator.ai. Former ARD correspondent and senior broadcast journalist with 10+ years covering tech. Writes daily briefings on policy and market developments. Based in San Francisco. E-mail: editor@implicator.ai