EU president backs AI slowdown, to invite frontier labs for talks

Von der Leyen's comments in her annual speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg came amid growing worries about the potential danger posed by artificial intelligence

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday backed calls by leading U.S. AI labs for a pause in the development of the technology, saying she will invite the main frontier AI labs to discuss efforts to tackle the risks.

Von der Leyen's comments in her annual speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg came amid growing worries about the potential danger posed by artificial intelligence, putting her at odds with U.S. President Donald Trump who has dismissed the AI safety alarm.

The dangers were underscored by Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon who resigned and accused both the company and OpenAI of racing toward self-improving superintelligence without acting responsibly. He had previously worked at OpenAI.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei last week called on AI companies to slow the rate at which they advance model capabilities, drawing the support of both Elon Musk, who runs xAI, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

"As the frontier models become more capable, these risks have come more sharply into focus. Models being developed will allow hacking on a level we never thought possible. And they will soon be in the hands of adversaries who see the world very differently from us," von der Leyen told EU lawmakers.