Global Leaders Clash Over Calls to Slow AI Development

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for a slowdown in the development of self-recursive AI models to pace the frontier during her State of the European Union address in Strasbourg. She announced plans to invite leading frontier AI labs to discuss risk mitigation, citing concerns that advanced models could enable unprecedented hacking and fall into the hands of adversaries. Von der Leyen pledged that Europe would help write global AI rules, collaborating with Canada and the United Kingdom on model evaluation and security.

This position aligns with warnings from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who urged global coordination to prevent a race to the bottom on AI safety. Former US Vice President Kamala Harris also advocated for a slowdown, urging Congress to establish a federal oversight entity and suggesting a treaty with China to limit development speed. These leaders echoed calls from industry executives at OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI, who proposed third-party evaluations and peer-review mechanisms to prevent the loss of human control.

However, the push for caution faces significant opposition. US President Donald Trump has dismissed existential AI threats as a hoax, arguing that a slowdown would allow China to overtake the United States in AI leadership. In France, Finance Minister Roland Lescure argued that calls to slow down serve the self-interest of dominant US companies and that Europe must instead accelerate adoption to manage risks. Meanwhile, Singapore's Minister Josephine Teo proposed a safety regime similar to civil aviation to build public trust as the technology evolves.