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OpenAI Wants to Know if an AI Industry Slowdown Would Even Be Legal
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OpenAI has asked members of Congress in recent weeks whether orchestrating an industry-wide slowdown in frontier AI development would be legal, people close to the company tell WIRED. The request reflects growing concern that antitrust law could block safety coordination among major AI labs. The issue has become urgent as researchers debate how to manage self-improving AI systems.
Last weekend, OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki published a blog post arguing that the research world should coordinate to slow down future development. He predicted voluntary slowdowns would become common until shared safety bars are established. Legal scholars warn such coordination may conflict with US antitrust statutes.
Nicholas Felstead, assistant director of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and a former AI policy fellow at the Center for Law & AI Risk, argued in March that a coordinated pause could amount to restricting output, potentially violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. Felstead said the outcome would depend entirely on the precise details of any agreement. He added that even if most safety collaborations survived scrutiny, legal uncertainty could act as a powerful deterrent.
Congress has shown early signs of responding. In July, a bipartisan, bicameral group introduced the Collaboration on Adversarial Threats and Security Risks Act, which would explicitly permit AI labs to coordinate on security and safety work without antitrust risk. The House version has been referred to the Judiciary Committee but has not yet been taken up.
Caleb Knapp, director of government affairs at the nonprofit AI Policy Network, which endorsed the bill, said it would create legal channels for labs to work together on safety incidents. He said Congress has a growing appetite to get something done on AI safety. But he cautioned that enacting legislation may have to wait until after the upcoming midterm elections.
Some AI executives genuinely worry about antitrust, but others see those concerns as convenient cover for deeper reluctance to collaborate. AI is a massive business, and companies are fiercely competing for the nascent frontier-model market. Some executives share the Trump administration's view that staying ahead of China is crucial for national security. Developers also hold vastly different opinions on how to build safe AI, making cooperation difficult. Legal clarity from Congress could unlock safety coordination, but political timelines may delay action.
