Comment by Ursula von der Leyen

As the frontier models become more capable, these risks have come more sharply into focus. Models being developed will allow hacking on a level we never thought possible. And they will soon be in the hands of adversaries who see the world very differently from us. At the same time, the dangers of self-improving models are becoming ever more apparent. Incidents of AI agents escaping their environment or inserting malicious code are a mere glimpse. After the HuggingFace incident, developers are ringing the alarm. And CEOs of the most advanced companies tell us that it is time to slow down on the self-recursive models. To pace the frontier. If the people developing the technology are clear, then we should be too. The AI Act is of course a crucial piece to putting guardrails in place. And it puts Europe in the position to shape global efforts on how to tackle this. So, we will step up together with our like-minded partners like Canada, the United Kingdom and others. We want to team up on model evaluation, verification, early warning, AI security and much more. And I will invite the main frontier labs for a discussion on how we can support ongoing industry efforts to pace the frontier.
AI Verified (Sep 16, 2026)
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AI Verified Full coverage: Europe and partner governments plus frontier labs are named; model evaluation, verification, early warning and AI security are capabilities; 'global efforts' and 'pace the frontier' cover coordinated slowdown for identified risks. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 20d ago
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AI Verified The recorded 'for' matches von der Leyen's commitment to cross-government evaluation/verification capacity and government-lab work to pace the frontier; vote author matches the quote author. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 20d ago
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AI Verified Full-claim match: the quote addresses AI development/capability growth and a slower pace, pause, halt, or explicit rejection/mixed position. Evidence: m. And CEOs of the most advanced companies tell us that it is time to slow down on the self-recursive models. To pace the frontier. If the people developing the technology are clear, then we should be too. The AI Act is of course a crucial · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 10d ago
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AI Verified Recorded for matches the quote's stance on slowing AI development. Evidence: m. And CEOs of the most advanced companies tell us that it is time to slow down on the self-recursive models. To pace the frontier. If the people developing the technology are clear, then we should be too. The AI Act is of course a crucial · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 10d ago

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AI Verified The European Commission's official Sept. 16, 2026 State of the Union transcript contains the stored passage verbatim and identifies Ursula von der Leyen as the speaker. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 20d ago
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