US Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday urged US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to pause the development of advanced artificial intelligence, including superintelligent AI, after top CEOs Dario Amodei, Sam Altman and Elon Musk called for a slowdown.
In a post on X, Sanders said Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI CEO Elon Musk acknowledged the need to slow the pace of AI development.
Dario Amodei, Elon Musk and Sam Altman now agree that we must slow down the development of AI and “pace the frontier.”
That's a start, but it's not enough.
When you are racing towards a cliff, you don't just ease up on the gas pedal. You hit the brakes.
When the future of…Also Read | Layoffs Are Rising In Tech, But These Skills Are Helping People Unlock Better Pay
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 12, 2026
"Dario Amodei, Elon Musk and Sam Altman now agree that we must slow down the development of AI and 'pace the frontier.' That's a start, but it's not enough," Sanders wrote.
Sanders, who has introduced legislation seeking to prohibit superintelligent AI, said stronger action was needed. "When you are racing towards a cliff, you don't just ease up on the gas pedal. You hit the brakes," he said.
The Senator said a pause was necessary when the future of humanity was at stake, calling for a ban on artificial superintelligence- AI systems that are smarter than humans and capable of operating independently beyond human control.
Sanders also urged Trump and Xi to negotiate a treaty on advanced AI at an upcoming AI summit. "At their upcoming AI summit, Trump and Xi must negotiate a treaty to pause AI and ban superintelligence before it is too late," Sanders said.
Earlier this month, Sanders introduced legislation seeking a permanent ban on superintelligent AI. The full text of the bill has not yet been released. The legislation seeks to prevent the development of AI systems capable of operating independently beyond human control.
ALSO READ: Amodei, Altman, Musk Halt Their Feud And Agree That AI Needs Slowing Down
Top AI CEOs Call For 'Slowdown'
The push to slow AI development gained momentum after Amodei published a nearly 4,000-word essay titled "We Must Pace the Frontier" on September 12.
Amodei warned about the growing risks posed by increasingly capable AI systems and argued that companies should deliberately slow the pace at which they improve model capabilities. He said the additional time could be used to strengthen safety measures and better understand increasingly powerful AI systems.
Amodei's concerns were heightened by the accelerating ability of AI systems to contribute to the development of the next generation of models, a process known as recursive self-improvement.
He also cited a recent cyberattack involving a rogue AI agent swarm targeting Hugging Face as an example of how the risks posed by advanced AI could escalate. "We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," Amodei said, while stressing that AI progress would remain rapid even at a slower pace. He argued that companies should make "wise use" of the additional time gained.
Altman later backed Amodei's call to "pace the frontier" and said the issue had been a major topic of discussion at OpenAI in recent weeks. "I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we've had at OpenAI in recent weeks," Altman wrote on X.
He also said OpenAI would adopt Amodei's proposal to give independent evaluators employee-like access to its AI systems.
Musk, whose public disputes with Amodei and Altman are well documented, also backed the Anthropic CEO's position, replying to the discussion on X, "Dario is right."
Sanders' call goes beyond the CEOs' proposals, however, as he is seeking an outright pause on advanced AI development and a ban on superintelligent AI. His latest appeal puts pressure on Trump and Xi to address the issue through an international agreement.
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