Emily Otto on Slow down AI development

Emily Otto

Johns Hopkins SAIS PhD student and Alperovitch PhD Fellow researching cyber conflict, AI, and national security; former U.S. Army cyber officer.

This past weekend, the head of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, announced that his company would be taking voluntary steps to slow the pace of development as a result of growing worries about model capabilities. It’s a start, but it’s not nearly enough. Given the dangers that self-improving AI could pose, the United States should consider leading by example and implementing a simple rule: No U.S. AI lab should be permitted to fully automate its research and development pipeline.

Unverified (Sep 15, 2026)

Source:

Emily Otto, “Don’t let AI build the next AI,” The Washington Post, September 15, 2026. Otto argues that voluntary slowing is inadequate and proposes a U.S. rule against fully automating an AI lab’s research-and-development pipeline.