Slow AI? Sam Altman says ‘pacing’ means safer progress, ‘not stopping’

He welcomed federal regulation to ensure consistent AI safety standards, while urging AI companies to first develop and adopt their own responsible safety practices.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Monday said American AI companies must build public confidence that increasingly capable AI systems will be developed and deployed responsibly.“The world deserves confidence that American companies developing increasingly capable AI will act responsibly, especially as the trajectory of progress has steepened.

Every frontier lab must deliver on this, and there is no reason any of us should come to work if we cannot,” he wrote on X.The world deserves confidence that American companies developing increasingly capable AI will act responsibly, especially as the trajectory of progress has steepened.

Every frontier lab must deliver on this, and there is no reason any of us should come to work if we cannot.We…— Sam Altman (@sama) September 14, 2026OpenAI CEO defended his earlier stance that the term pacing does not mean stopping.“When we talk about ‘pacing’, we do not mean ‘stopping’.

Progress has been rapid and will continue to be.

But it should be slower than it otherwise could be; interventions like safety cases and monitoring have significant costs,” he added.His remarks come against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump voicing the call to slow down AI development, saying that a lot of “negative forces” are bringing this up which should not have been done."We can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that ... shouldn't be bringing it up, and they're bringing up things that won't happen.

But whoever wins with AI wins," Trump had said.Need for regulationAltman also called for government support in coordinating AI safety efforts internationally, while stressing that AI companies should first take steps on their own.He welcomed federal regulation to ensure consistent AI safety standards, while urging AI companies to first develop and adopt their own responsible safety practices.“We welcome a federal framework that sets consistent safety requirements for frontier AI.

But we do not believe we need to wait for an anti-trust exemption or legislation to begin the work of providing this confidence.

Consistent rules to manage frontier risk so that we can maximize the benefits are a good idea (and we are excited by ideas like independent auditors),” he noted.Altman emphasised that greater cooperation among AI companies could lead to better outcomes, calling on industry peers to collaborate on developing the most effective safety practices.