Children's media has increasingly adopted rapid pacing, loud sounds, and bright visuals that overwhelm young viewers' ability to process meaning and develop emotional understanding. While content quality matters, the accelerated tempo—driven by attention economy principles—prevents children from taking time to follow stories, grasp concepts, or recognize social repair, potentially undermining their development of empathy and sustained attention.
An essay exploring the principle of managed pacing across performance domains, from competitive swimming to frontier AI development. Drawing on research about excellence and military wisdom, the author argues that optimal tempo requires matching pace to situational dynamics rather than maximizing effort. The piece examines Dario Amodei's proposal for deliberately paced AI development as a safety measure, while acknowledging cynical interpretations involving regulatory capture and antitrust concerns.
Sam Altman argues that frontier AI labs should adopt shared safety rules and responsible development practices without waiting for legislation, including safety cases and independent auditors. He emphasizes that pacing development—slowing progress to ensure alignment and monitoring—is necessary, and calls for industry-wide standards while seeking government help with international coordination.
An essay exploring the concept of managed pacing across performance domains, from competitive swimming to frontier AI development. The author argues that excellence comes from qualitative improvements in technique rather than maximizing raw effort, and applies this principle to Dario Amodei's proposal for deliberately pacing frontier AI development to allow safety work to keep pace with capability advances.
Dario Amodei's essay advocating for AI development pacing has drawn mixed reactions. While his calls for transparency and regulation deserve credit, critics argue the proposal amounts to regulatory capture disguised as governance, with concerns that independent evaluators like METR lack true independence and that framing China as a threat undermines genuine international dialogue.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei outlined three strategies to slow AI development, including embedded third-party evaluators, safety coordination among leading AI companies, and global coordination with other nations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman endorsed the proposal, while Amodei addressed concerns about Chinese AI dominance and antitrust scrutiny.
An AI researcher discusses concerns about advanced AI systems and safety, referencing Dario Amodei's proposal to pace AI development. The author expresses skepticism about the pacing idea, noting that only Anthropic and OpenAI matter in the space and questioning whether meaningful oversight is possible given the companies' shared origins and influence over the narrative around AI risks.
Sam Altman agrees with Dario Amodei that AI development should be paced and commits to independent evaluators with employee-level access. Anthropic is implementing a three-part plan to slow AI frontier advancement, with OpenAI planning similar measures.
The author questions which actors frontier AI pacing agreements are meant to constrain, arguing that the two leading labs could unilaterally implement safety measures through their governance structures without legal agreements. They express skepticism about whether such agreements would effectively address risks from other U.S. labs or China, given that frontier safety depends on labs doing the right thing when encountering unexpected risks.