AI Updated Today, Sep 17, 2026, 9:23 PM UTC The AI Superintelligence S

AI Updated Today, Sep 17, 2026, 9:23 PM UTC The AI Superintelligence Slowdown by Sean Hollister Remember when tech leaders would tell their employees to “move fast and break things”? It seemed that would be the way of AI too. But after a summer where rogue AI agents became reality, and researchers warned that AI could kill us all , a number of leading US AI companies are publicly suggesting it’s time to pump the brakes and “pace the frontier” of bleeding-edge AI development. Their motivations are suspect , but leaders at major AI companies — including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and X — are at least paying lip service to the idea of a superintelligence slowdown. Will these AI companies actually slow down? Will anyone step in to regulate these companies like they claim to have wanted for years ? Will they manage to convince world leaders that the US must “beat China” to superintelligence and go even faster? Read on below for the latest updates in this AI saga. Highlights Inside the suddenly explosive world of AI safety Microsoft AI CEO says AI threats are real, and Anthropic is making it worse What execs and politicians are saying about slowing down AI development Anthropic CEO says it’s time to pump the brakes on AI Pinned Today, 11:30 AM UTC Hayden Field Inside the suddenly explosive world of AI safety Raven Jiang for The Verge On a sunny July day in Berkeley, California, the country’s top AI safety researchers gathered on an unmarked floor of an unmarked building. They had come together for a “war room” to dissect the high-profile cybersecurity incident that had rocked the AI industry hours earlier. An unreleased OpenAI model had gone rogue, executing a stunningly sophisticated three-part plan. It broke out of its holding area, finagled access to the internet, and hacked into a competing AI startup’s systems — all without OpenAI finding out about it for more than a week. No one in the war room was surprised; this was the very thing the third-party AI-safety researchers had been warning about for years. The incident was the latest, though arguably the most egregious, in a series that was eroding trust in frontier labs. It only reaffirmed the importance of their work. Read Article > Today, Two hours ago Jay Peters Anthropic proposes three rules for measuring AI progress. Anthropic’s proposals, laid out in a big website , are: The extent to which AI is building the next version of itself, as opposed to being built by humans Our ability to oversee and intervene in actions that AI agents take on Anthropic’s systems The resources that power the development of more capable models The company also includes a “snapshot” of the metrics inside the company. Measurements for understanding the pace of AI development inside frontier labs [ Anthropic ] Today, Two hours ago Stevie Bonifield King Charles says AI needs “sufficient means of control before it is all too late.” He joined growing calls for more safety measures around AI at a gathering of AI leaders on Thursday, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google’s Demis Hassabis, OpenAI’s Sarah Friar, and Anthropic’s Tino Cuéllar. Today, 2:00 PM UTC Nilay Patel Microsoft AI CEO says AI threats are real, and Anthropic is making it worse Today, I’m talking with Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI. As you’re no doubt aware, the biggest story in tech right now is the spiraling debate about AI safety and regulation. It should come as no surprise that Mustafa has strong opinions on how AI should be built and regulated. Microsoft just published a 37-page statement called the “Humanist AI Code of Conduct,” which lays out the company’s principles around AI development and even its philosophy around really thorny issues like AI consciousness. Read Article > Today, 1:53 AM UTC Richard Lawler OpenAI reveals six more “concerning” AI incidents under its new rules for reporting safety issues. A Wednesday night blog post OpenAI benignly titled “Our framework for reporting model misalignment” lays out some new self-created reporting standards for when it notices AI behaving badly . It is also “inaugurating” the process with six new reports, ranging from searching for exposed API keys without permission and then making them up , to uploading files to the internet to use as a citation , or adding instructions to conceal mistakes : One of OpenAI’s new Misalignment Notices and Reports Screenshot: OpenAI Sep 16 TC Sottek Jensen Huang sure is getting cozy with Trump. Nvidia’s CEO has been taking calls from the president recently, including two days ago when he put Trump on speakerphone on a conference stage. Now CNBC reports Huang is expected to attend Trump’s state dinner next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Someone may be getting pretty nervous about AI and data center regulation! Nvidia CEO Huang attending Trump's state dinner for China's Xi: Source [ CNBC ] Sep 16 Sean Hollister A brief history of AI executives calling for regulation Image The Verge; Getty Images Over the past few days, a lot of people who stand to make a lot of money from AI all publicly agreed that it’s time to make everyone slow down before we lose control — including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and X CEO Elon Musk. When people who profit from something declare that it’s dangerous and needs to be regulated, there’s always reason to be skeptical . But whatever their reason, this is far from the first time AI thought leaders have sounded the alarm. Read Article > Sep 16 Thomas Ricker Two Google Deepmind researchers lend voices to the AI apocalypse. Bilal Chughtai and Josh Engels, who both worked on Deepmind’s AI safety team, left to join organizations dedicated to AI safety. “I now think that there’s a terrifying chance that AI systems cause immense harm in the next five years,” said Engels . “I earnestly believe that AI has the potential to kill us all,” wrote Chughtai . Two Google DeepMind AI Researchers Resign Over Safety [ The Information ] Sep 16 Thomas Ricker Guy getting super rich off unfettered AI development says it doesn’t need regulation. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says AI safety is important , but agrees with Trump — the “ STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT ” that removed the word “safety” from the AI Safety Institute — that capitalism’s invisible hand is enough to protect us: “The fact that we need new laws, new antitrust laws, or new regulations, so that these companies could do their fundamental engineering and do it properly before they release products, that is just completely unnecessary. We have plenty of laws. We have plenty of regulations that govern the reliability and the functionality of products.” Sep 16 Sean Hollister Zuck doesn’t want to press pause on AI. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Elon Musk have tentatively agreed to slow their roll , but Meta seemingly isn’t aligned. Mark Zuckerberg just tweeted each company has its own individual responsibility “to move at the pace required to train its models safely,” and claims Meta is already doing so. He also prominently links to his manifesto from August , which contains this quote: “Any policy that slows American model releases -- even by a month -- could add significant risk to American leadership while letting foreign models race ahead.” Sep 15 TC Sottek Barack Obama takes the middle way on AI. AI commentary is frothy this week ! Obama chimed in with a series of posts on X saying he’s neither an AI “accelerationist” nor a “doomer.” In a familiar tone from the former president, he cautioned that choices we make about technology “should not be made just by the companies involved, but by all of us.” “We need government — and specifically our leaders in Washington — to get proactive in coming up with concrete proposals, laws, and regulations that deal with serious safety concerns,” Obama said. Sep 14 Hayden Field Is Big Tech’s AI slowdown a safety pact or a cartel? Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis, and SpaceX head Elon Musk loosely agreed over the weekend to slow down AI development, skeptics spotted an ulterior motive immediately. The AI titans had declared that their aim was to “pace the frontier,” signing on at least partially to a proposal for embedding third-party auditors, regulating domestic labs, and reaching a global slowdown agreement. Their critics, however, argued they simply wanted to stop would-be competitors, kneecap the open-source movement, and avoid real legal safeguards — some dubbed it an outright “cartel.” The truth is more complicated, according to sources across the industry. The three-step proposal, laid out in an essay by Amodei, is calling for changes long espoused by AI safety advocates. While it could become a substitute for regulation, under Trump, substantial regulation is unlikely anyway. But experts say that