OpenAI asks Congress whether an industry-wide AI slowdown would be legal

OpenAI has asked members of Congress in recent weeks for guidance on whether orchestrating an industry-wide slowdown in frontier AI development would be legal, people close to the company told WIRED. The concern is that substantive safety coordination between AI labs could conflict with US antitrust law, which the sources describe as a significant obstacle to bringing major tech companies into such an effort. OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki argued in a blog post last weekend that coordinating to slow future development is key to safe self-improving AI. Legal scholars have said a coordinated pause could amount to output restriction under the Sherman Antitrust Act. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.