Billionaire David Sacks to Sam Altman and Dario Amodei's call to slowdown AI development

Billionaire David Sacks has responded harshly to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, who have called for a deliberate slowdown in the pace of artificial intelligence (AI) development. The tech investor urged the leaders to "cut the theater" and stop their work voluntarily if they believe their experimental models pose an existential threat.

Altman and Amodei had previously endorsed the idea of "pace the frontier," with support from Elon Musk. Sacks argued that OpenAI and Anthropic already control the industry's velocity, dominating market share, computational breakthroughs, and revenue gains, and therefore do not need external frameworks or regulation to voluntarily slow down.

He pointed out that the two leaders have defined the cutting edge through recursive self-improvement and that they should stop pretending they need permission from regulators or to form a cartel. Sacks also rejected the idea that slowing down is a purely altruistic act, emphasizing that both companies face significant financial liabilities in civil court if their automated tools cause a catastrophic cyber attack.

He suggested that the market already punishes models that behave unpredictably or unauthorizedly, making it a smart business practice for OpenAI and Anthropic to trade some raw power for reliability and predictability.