Heard on the Tape: The labs asked to be slowed down
Last week the frontier labs asked to be slowed down. The podcasts weren't buying it.
Dario Amodei published a plan to pace the frontier. On Equity, Sean O'Kane said it sounds like a line from Point Break, and that nobody has said what slowing down actually means. Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi said some of the fear talk has been marketing. Above the Law went further: a slowdown designed by the leaders works as a moat, and as a way to push out cheaper open-weight models.
Nobody argued the risk is fake. The argument is over who writes the rules.
Sources: Sean O'Kane (TechCrunch), Equity, "Automattic's 33-Hour coup, and can AI labs police themselves?," Sep 18, 2026. Ali Ghodsi (Databricks), a16z, "Databricks CEO on AI Pacing, Cyber Risk, and the Enterprise," Sep 18, 2026. Joe Patrice and Kathryn Rubino (Above the Law), Above the Law: Thinking Like a Lawyer, "Weil Get You And... Then Maybe You'll Go To Cravath," Sep 23, 2026.
Nobody on the shows argued AI risk is fake. The fight is over who writes the rules and whether a leader-designed slowdown works as a moat.