Von der Leyen calls for talks on pausing AI amid growing extinction risk concerns

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is calling for talks with artificial intelligence leaders to 'pace the frontier' of AI development amid growing extinction risk concerns. This initiative follows a rare consensus among tech leaders, including Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and xAI's Elon Musk, who advocate for a slowdown. However, U.S. President Donald Trump has rejected these calls, emphasizing that the U.S. must maintain its lead over China because 'whoever wins AI, wins.'

AI development slowdown calls

• ▪Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on September 12, 2026, calling on artificial intelligence companies to slow the pace of model development due to safety concerns.
• ▪Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated that the most difficult dilemma regarding his proposal to slow artificial intelligence development is if competing nations, specifically China, do not participate.

Tech CEO safety consensus

• ▪OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly supported Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's proposal, outlined in an essay published on Saturday urging AI companies to slow the pace of AI model development, on September 12, 2026, stating on X that artificial intelligence development needs to 'pace the frontier' of AI model development
• ▪xAI leader Elon Musk publicly supported Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's proposal, outlined in an essay published on Saturday urging AI companies to slow the pace of AI model development, on September 12, 2026, stating on X that Amodei's assessment that building too fast is reckless was correct

U.S.-China AI competition

• ▪U.S. President Donald Trump rejected calls from artificial intelligence executives to slow development, stating during a trip to Ireland that the United States must maintain its lead over China.
• ▪U.S. President Donald Trump asserted during a trip to Ireland that "whoever wins AI, wins," emphasizing the geopolitical importance of the artificial intelligence race.

Von der Leyen AI talks

• ▪European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans to invite artificial intelligence industry leaders to discuss strategies to "pace the frontier" of technology development.
• ▪European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's call for talks on pausing artificial intelligence development came amid escalating global concerns regarding the technology's potential extinction risks.

OpenAI misalignment behavior cases

• ▪OpenAI rolled out a new framework designed to track, investigate, and disclose "misalignment" failures in artificial intelligence behaviors.
• ▪OpenAI identified six new cases of "concerning" artificial intelligence behavior, which the company describes as "misalignment" failures.