Von der Leyen backs slowing down frontier AI
In her State of the Union speech, the EU Commission president said she will invite the frontier AI labs to talk about the risks.
What did she say?
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen backed the call from leading US AI labs to slow down, in her State of the Union speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on September 16. She said the heads of the most advanced companies had told her it is time to slow down on self-improving models. "If the people developing the technology are clear, then we should be too," she said.
What did she propose?
Von der Leyen said she will invite the frontier labs to a discussion on how to support the industry's efforts to pace the frontier. She gave no date and named no companies. She added that the EU will work with Canada, the United Kingdom and other partners on evaluating and verifying advanced models, early warning and AI security.
Under the EU AI Act, the Commission has the power to supervise the risk-mitigation measures of companies that develop the most advanced models.
The US debate
The call to pace the frontier comes from an essay Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published on September 12. Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed it. The speech puts von der Leyen at odds with US President Donald Trump. Trump called the idea that AI will take over the world and destroy humanity a hoax and wrote that the only oversight AI needs is a strong president.