WorkSeptember 13, 2026via The Verge AI
Trump and Mike Johnson think the AI industry is overreacting
Why it matters
Policy and regulation around AI development velocity just shifted. Political leadership is now openly positioning itself against the frontier labs' self-imposed slowdown, framing it as a national security risk. This shapes what practitioners can expect from government as deployment and capability races accelerate.
Key signals
- Dario Amodei (Anthropic) published open letter calling to 'pace the frontier'
- Sam Altman (OpenAI) and Elon Musk publicly supported pacing proposal
- Demis Hassabis (Alphabet/DeepMind) offered tentative support
- Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson oppose the pause
- Trump framed AI race as geopolitical competition with China: 'whoever wins AI, wins'
- Financial Times reported Trump's comments
- Political resistance to self-regulation emerging as counterweight to lab caution
The hook
Trump vs. the frontier labs: a pacing pause just became a geopolitical flashpoint.
Yesterday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a lengthy open letter saying it was time to "pace the frontier" and slow down AI development. OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk both agreed, publicly voicing their support on X. Even Alphabet's Demis Hassabis offered tentative support for Amodei's prop…