Over 1,100 staffers from AI companies, including John Schulman and OpenAI's Jakub Pachocki, sign a letter requesting the US government to “pace” AI development

More than 1,100 staffers across top artificial intelligence firms have signed a petition that calls on the US government …

Bloomberg 2026-07-28

Context & Ripple Effects

This petition extends a long-running pattern of AI researchers and employees using open letters to press for guardrails: earlier signatories sought a safe harbor for independent product research, while a later group called for international AI “red lines” by the end of 2026.

The focus has also widened from general principles to concrete institutional choices. Google employees recently sought limits on classified-work use, and OpenAI had separately offered the White House its own federal AI policy recommendations. This letter shifts the pressure directly toward the pace of US AI development.

First-order effects

The 1,100-plus signatories create a visible cross-company employee constituency for slower, more deliberate AI development, including named figures associated with leading labs.
US policymakers gain a new public intervention from people inside AI companies as they weigh how actively government should shape development priorities and timing.

Second-order effects

AI firms face added pressure to explain how their internal safety views, public-policy positions and development incentives align, particularly when employees advocate a different posture.
The petition reinforces employee organizing as a channel for contesting AI deployment and government partnerships, following the Google staff campaign over classified AI work.

Third-order effects

If such interventions persist, technical employees may become a more durable counterweight in AI governance, alongside companies, investors and governments.
The broader contest is moving from whether AI should be governed to how the state should mediate its development pace—an unresolved tension between acceleration, safety and national strategy.

The trend: AI governance is increasingly becoming a contest over development tempo, with employees seeking to influence the state’s role as well as their employers’ choices.

Discussion

@hadas_gold Hadas Gold on x
Ok these are some big names on this open letter, calling on the US government to support governance tools to “deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development” - chief scientist of OPenAI, Meta, Anthropic cofounder, VPs at Google etc ... similar sentiment to what Sam Al…
@shakeelhashim Shakeel on x
Big new open letter from AI company employees just dropped. “We request that the US government support …
@zeffmax Max Zeff on x
this is now live, and wow some big names on this call for the US to “pace” AI development. The letter is not calling for a pause or slowdown in AI development, but says that “the world should have the option.” [image]
@wholemars @wholemars on x
petition to let China kick our ass and to accept them as our masters
@mark_k Mark Kretschmann on x
These Decel employees should be fired immediately. Imagine working at a car company and protesting against the development of better models! Absolutely unacceptable behavior from OpenAI and Anthropic employees.
@adamthierer Adam Thierer on x
This is a very troubling development. OpenAI and Anthropic are free to slow down their own AI development efforts all they want. …
@chadwahl Chad Wahlquist on x
Cool as long as the deliberate pace is warp speed
@tedlieu Ted Lieu on x
This is why we need to pass the bipartisan AI Kill Switch Bill asap. Right now, and into the future, there will be circumstances when we realize an AI frontier model has capabilities beyond what we thought, or has gone rogue. Humans need the ability to turn these things off.
@shiringhaffary Shirin Ghaffary on x
NEW: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind staff are circulating a letter asking the US government to support a mechanism that could help “deliberately pace” AI development if needed, bc of risks of the technology becoming out of control w/ @rachelmetz https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@stevesi Steven Sinofsky on x
Please government stop the very work I am doing. I seem unable to find the agency to get a different job and find an employer with whom I have a shared alignment. Help. We. Can't. Stop.
@abhominedeus Ab Homine Deus on x
I've warned about this. “AI is advancing too fast and will disempower the current ruling class. We need to slow down to give them time to entrench their positions over the dirty plebs.” Gross. ASI cannot take over fast enough.
@stevesi Steven Sinofsky on x
https://www.pacingthefrontier.com/ If you don't like what your company is doing and claim some moral high ground in saying that, then what does it mean if you continue to advance that mission? This is the definition of signaling. Just quit and work on something you deem moral. Yo…
@zeffmax Max Zeff on x
a lot of powerful statements in here. From one Anthropic employee: “I've seen how the relentless pace of AI makes it hard for society to keep up and how it puts pressure on labs to cut corners on safety.”
@micsolana Mike Solana on x
are we really doing another open letter
@logandobson Logan Dobson on x
happy to run down how this will go: US Negotiators: “China, will you guys slow down your AI development” China: “no” OR China: “yes” (lying) end of International Effort
@milesaturpin Miles Turpin on x
Automating AI R&D could quickly result in capabilities and behaviors we can't understand or control. We have a shot at coordinating to pace this out, we shouldn't waste it. Proud to have signed: https://www.pacingthefrontier.com/
@gabrieldwu1 Gabriel Wu on x
Huge new letter that calls for in international effort to develop the tools to deliberately pace RSI: https://pacingthefrontier.com/ I'm proud to have signed this (alongside 1000+ other AI lab employees)!
@theobearman Theo Bearman on x
Quite the top list! [image]
@dylhunn Dylan Hunn on x
I signed today's statement on pacing the frontier, alongside 1000+ other lab employees …
@thezvi Zvi Mowshowitz on x
Full text of the Pacing the Frontier statement, signed by 1,122 employees for frontier AI companies so far, including a bunch of heavy hitters at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others: [image]
@brivael Brivael Le Pogam on x
Lmao. OpenAI and Anthropic should just stop. Wrapping an LLM is not a company or a sustainable business model. They know it from the beginning.
@kiko_himself Kiko H. de Mello on x
This is actually great news. Problem is China complying. The only way to have China also pace its development would be a proper export ban on “chips”.
@woke8yearold Aleph on x
Not happening
@openai @openai on x
At the core of our mission is working through how to ensure increasingly powerful AI benefits everyone. …
@tszzl Roon on x
pacing up and down the frontier, with a nervous and irregular gait
@suchenzang Susan Zhang on x
it's really too bad that of those who have signed this puff piece, only a handful might actually …
@suchenzang Susan Zhang on x
it's really too bad that of those who have signed this puff piece, only a handful might actually …
@miles_brundage Miles Brundage on x
One of the reasons I decided to go all in on frontier AI auditing after leaving OpenAI is so that, if AI companies need to take costly steps on safety/security, they can be reassured (by independent auditors) that their peers are doing the same thing. https://x.com/...
@repcasar Congressman Greg Casar on x
The people closes to new AI technology are warning us it could soon be very, very dangerous. We need strong new rules to prevent catastrophe. https://x.com/...
@afinetheorem Kevin A. Bryan on x
This statement is correct, and signed by a ton of top researchers (though I wish they'd asked Chinese lab research heads to sign!). As in comments, the pace of AI progress internally is moving very fast. G2 China-US agreement with strict, pro-innovation but pro-safety, is urgent.
@zackkorman Zack Korman on x
I'd probably take AI researchers' warnings more seriously if they weren't constantly talking about cybersecurity and revealing how little they know about the topic. [image]
@averiorg @averiorg on x
We strongly agree with this letter's premise: as frontier AI capabilities advance …
@dylanbowmansf Dylan Bowman on x
My sincerest respect to all lab employees who signed this letter. It's crucial to turn down the temperature of the AI race so we can traverse the dangers safely [image]
@peterwildeford Peter Wildeford on x
1100+ employees at OpenAI + Google + Meta + Thinking Machines + other companies all sharing concern that AI may develop faster than our ability to control it. Race dynamics make handling AI a mess. As we get to superintelligence, more options to pace AI development are needed.
Arthur Goemans Arthur Goemans on linkedin
Alongside more than 1000 colleagues across frontier labs, I signed the open letter on Pacing the Frontier. …
r/singularity r on reddit
Pacing the Frontier
@ccatalini Christian Catalini on x
If the US labs pace themselves, why would China wait?
@suchenzang Susan Zhang on x
according to them, chip controls work and adversarial advancements are all due to distillation. …
@chrisgpt Chris on x
🚨Anthropic urges pacing development by signing petition because of RSI …
@charliebull0ck Charlie Bullock on x
This Pacing the Frontier letter is a good development, IMO. I am not currently a pause/slowdown guy …
@tedlieu Ted Lieu on x
House Republican leadership and the trump Administration let the AI industry run wild. That was a major mistake. Now even some in the industry are saying to the federal government: please don't let us run wild. November is coming.
@nickcammarata Nick on x
I used to think slowing down was pointless, like slightly delaying a roller coaster. pausing at gpt2 for a year wouldn't have changed anything. but I've been shocked by how much agents has sped up the best interp/alignment researchers I know. +6mo might decide how this goes
@boazbaraktcs Boaz Barak on x
Proud to have signed this statement. I don't know if a coordinated slowdown will be the right approach, but we need to prepare in case we'll need to do so.
@adrienle Adrien Ecoffet on x
I signed this and think it's really cool. AI progress is awesome and should arguably go even faster. But we are standing on the foothills of RSI and nobody knows for sure how fast things could get. We should create the option to pace progress from RSI. https://www.pacingthefronti…
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
my early days of covering tech, employees ruled the roost b/c bigcos needed talent then it swung the other way — many employees piped down, fearing layoffs now feel like A.I. era swinging back again, but for a subsection of specialized talent https://www.pacingthefrontier.com/ [i…
@anthropicai @anthropicai on x
We support this petition, signed by our CEO, several co-founders, and senior staff. Our own research on recursive self-improvement, published last month, points to the need for tools to deliberately pace the frontier of AI development so society can prepare. We're glad to see bro…

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