Altman, Musk, and Hassabis back Amodei's call to add independent oversight
| Source: THE DECODER
Tags: Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Demis Hassabis, AI governance, AI safety
Four frontier AI leaders — Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Demis Hassabis — endorsed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call for independent oversight of AI labs. Altman also confirmed OpenAI is pushing its IPO to 2027, citing safety concerns, though the company's weaker financials relative to Anthropic likely also factor in.
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Three of the most prominent figures in frontier AI — Sam Altman (OpenAI), Elon Musk (xAI), and former DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis — have publicly backed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's proposal for independent external oversight of AI labs. The consensus on third-party evaluation marks a rare moment of public alignment among rivals competing at the frontier. Altman accompanied the endorsement with a notable financial disclosure: OpenAI will not go public this year, with the IPO pushed to at least 2027. He attributed the delay to safety considerations and had shared the decision with staff in June. Analysts note OpenAI's fundraising trajectory currently compares unfavorably to Anthropic's — both explanations may hold simultaneously. The consensus is not universal. Google researcher Peyman Milanfar challenged Amodei's 'speed limit' premise, arguing that recursive self-improvement is inherently self-limiting due to unstable feedback loops. His position: systems that reliably self-improve are naturally bounded by stability constraints, making regulatory speed limits redundant. Cross-lab alignment on oversight — even if partial — could accelerate voluntary governance commitments industry-wide and strengthen the political case for mandatory third-party auditing of frontier AI systems, a measure under active debate in both US and EU regulatory frameworks.