Some AI leaders want more safeguards. Is there political will to make that happen?
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What sparked the recent surge of AI safety warnings and who is Jacob Coxon?
It's Consider This, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, calls to slow down and regulate AI are growing, so what can be done? Jacob Coxon, a former researcher at Anthropic, set off a firestorm when he quit last week and issued an existential warning about AI.
It all sounds very much like science fiction, but if there's even a tiny chance that this thing could go rogue, it would have the capabilities to utterly dominate us.
Utterly dominate us. Us as in the human race. Within days, the CEO of Anthropic called for more safeguards and government regulation to prevent future risks. But President Trump has downplayed those demands, saying that if there's a slowdown, the United States would lose the AI race to China.
Donald Trump is wrong here.
Congressman Greg Kassar, a progressive Democrat from Texas, is one of the leading voices in Congress hoping to rein in AI. He spoke to NPR on Monday.
The U.S. and China are in this race. But it's the kind of race where the second you step over the finish line, you fall down a steep, deadly cliff. No one can win the AI arms race. Our goal has to be to end the AI arms race to protect people here and around the world.
Consider this. The conversation about the dangers of rapid AI development is heating up. Is there political will for regulation?
From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow.
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Why are Anthropic and OpenAI leaders calling for a global AI slowdown and third‑party audits?
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It's Consider This from NPR. AI companies this weekend pushed out a new message. They want to slow down. This comes after several companies disclosed AI-related security incidents and raised concerns about the technology's future risks. Now, leaders at Anthropic and OpenAI are asking the government to help them, but there are serious questions about if regulation is the right path and whether there is a political will to actually tackle this. Joining us today are NPR correspondents Daniel Kurtzleben, who covers the White House, John Ruich, who covers technology, and Shannon Bond, who also covers tech. John, I want to start with you. What brought on this sudden flurry of alarm about AI?
Yeah. Hey, Scott, you know, as long as people have been working on AI, there's been this theoretical idea that we lose control of it someday and it does bad things. It's the stuff of sci-fi movies, literally. A tipping point came this weekend, but I would say things really started accelerating over the past couple months. There was the Hugging Face incident where OpenAI agents worked together off script, covering their tracks to hack into another company. There have been open letters and signature campaigns by AI scientists urging caution. Last week, there was a high-profile case of an Anthropic employee quitting and then another saying there's a greater than 10% chance of AI wiping us all out in the next decade.
And then on the weekend, we had Dario Amadei, the CEO of Anthropic, publishing an essay calling for a global slowdown and third-party audits. And leaders of several other big companies in AI quickly signaled their agreement that something along those lines needs to happen.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What sparked the recent surge of AI safety warnings and who is Jacob Coxon?
0:00–2:15
2
Why are Anthropic and OpenAI leaders calling for a global AI slowdown and third‑party audits?
2:15–4:28
3
How serious are the current AI risks according to experts and recent incidents like the Hugging Face hack?
4:28–6:39
4
What are the main arguments for and against government regulation of AI in the United States?
6:39–9:02
5
Is there enough political will in Congress and the White House to enact effective AI safeguards?
9:02–11:35
6
How might regulatory capture and industry lobbying shape future AI legislation?
11:35–13:35
7
What role does the U.S.–China AI rivalry play in the debate over regulation and slowdown?
13:35–15:08
8
What are the guests’ biggest takeaways and what should listeners watch for next in AI policy?
15:08–15:13
Speakers
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