A year ago, hardly anyone would have thought this possible.
A total of 1,132 employees from leading AI labs, including senior researchers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta, are warning that automated AI research could accelerate technological progress beyond anyone's control.
They are calling on the US government to develop internationally coordinated technical and political mechanisms that would allow the entire field of AI development to be deliberately slowed down if necessary. After all, no company or country wants to withdraw from the race on its own.
It sounds as though we are racing at full speed toward a point at which technology advances so rapidly, so fundamentally, and on such a vast scale that humans can no longer understand it or keep pace with it.
The competitors are forming a coalition to prevent that from happening. But unless China takes part, their call will go unheard.