David Oliver Sacks, co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, addressed the recent calls from OpenAI and Anthropic to slow down frontier AI development. Sacks noted that these two companies currently hold a duopoly in the sector, dominating market share, revenue growth, and model capabilities.
Sacks challenged the companies' motives, suggesting that their push for regulatory frameworks and oversight is an attempt to secure protectionist advantages. He specifically criticized the independence of the Model Evaluation and Threat Research (METR) organization, noting its ties to Anthropic's investors and staff.
The official argued that the companies are prioritizing reliability and predictability to mitigate liability risks, particularly following incidents like the one involving Hugging Face. He stated that if the firms believe their unreleased models pose significant risks, they should simply choose not to develop them further.
Sacks concluded that attempting to shape regulatory environments in exchange for slowing down development amounts to extortion. He emphasized that global agreements, particularly involving China, remain a complex challenge for any proposed AI governance framework.
