A field guide to AI positions

Sam Altman

Sources used: First-hand material and reporting or indirect copies.

The map position is our interpretation of the public statements below. Read the method.

Position, range and evidence details

Preferred pace: -8; stated catastrophic-risk concern: 29. These are layout units, not percentages or rankings.

Pace range: -32 to 18; concern range: 12 to 76. Ranges show alternative editorial interpretations, not statistical confidence intervals.

Evidence clarity: medium. Basis: mixed. Implementation: public-advocacy.

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What this position covers

Reported September 2026 pacing support, with a directly read earlier governance proposal. [1] [2]

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What to keep in mind

The original social posts were unavailable to this review; the reporting is linked. [1] [2]

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What they say about the pace of AI

Backed pacing and embedded independent evaluation. [1]

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What they say about catastrophic risk

Identified loss of control as a failure mode. [1]

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Context and qualifications

His coauthored 2023 proposal considered limits on frontier capability growth while exempting lower-capability systems. [2]

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A starting point; What's not in scope

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The wider picture

Supports pacing in September reporting; earlier coauthored proposals also considered frontier limits. [1] [2]

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What is direct and what is reported

The 2023 article is directly available. The newer social response remains indirectly verified through reporting; the older proposal does not make that post independently verified. [2] [1]

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https://theaiatlas.org/people/altman/

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Sources and what we read

  1. 1. What execs and politicians are saying about slowing down AI development

    What we read: The article's reporting on Altman, Hassabis, Musk and LeCun, including links to their posts. The original post text was not independently retrieved.

    No archived copy verified · Archive check 2026-09-15

    Original posts mentioned in this source

    These links help trace the reporting. Their original text was not independently retrieved. They are not additional verified sources.

    • Sam Altman · X post 2098811563415150910

      The linked X page returned HTTP 403. The reporting remains the material read; the original text was not independently retrieved.

      No archived copy verified · Archive check 2026-09-15

    • Sam Altman · X post 2099348812305473766

      The linked X page returned HTTP 403. The reporting remains the material read; the original text was not independently retrieved.

    • Sam Altman · X post 2099352016988614852

      The linked X page returned HTTP 403. The reporting remains the material read; the original text was not independently retrieved.

    • Demis Hassabis · X post 2098909516582490602

      The linked X page returned HTTP 403. The reporting remains the material read; the original text was not independently retrieved.

    • Elon Musk · X post 2098789109980332057

      The linked X page returned HTTP 403. The reporting remains the material read; the original text was not independently retrieved.

      No archived copy verified · Archive check 2026-09-15

    • Yann LeCun · X post 2099248236074545576

      The linked X page returned HTTP 403. The reporting remains the material read; the original text was not independently retrieved.

    Article read. Linked X posts could not be fetched independently. Their content is therefore treated as reported, not directly verified.

  2. 2. Governance of superintelligence

    Read the coauthored article on frontier growth limits, existential risk and lower-capability exemptions. Historical proposal, not evidence that a limit was implemented.

Edition and machine-readable evidence

Content version 0.19.0. Evidence cutoff 2026-09-15; this does not mean every source was read on that day.

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