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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Urges U.S. and China to Cap Recursive AI Self-Improvement

September 12, 2026 at 21:30 EDT

Policy & Regulation
Foundation Models

Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei on Saturday urged the United States and China to consider a “speed limit” on recursive self-improvement in frontier AI, comparing the idea to Cold War Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) as part of a three-step plan he calls “pacing the frontier.”

September 12, 2026 · Anthropic

A speed limit on self-improving AI

Dario Amodei asks the United States and China to cap recursive self-improvement, analogizing the idea to Cold War SALT treaties, while Anthropic seats outside evaluators inside the lab.

Time windows, drawn to the high end of each range

Columns are scaled in months: 12 vs 24 vs 60. The labels keep Amodei’s stated ranges.

6–12 mo

Botnet risk

1–2 yr

Extra safety time

3–5 yr

Hoped U.S. lead

Takeaway: he wants months of extra safety work inside a multi-year geopolitical window, not a freeze.

6–12

months to a possible internet-scale botnet, he warns

1–2 yr

extra time he says could cut catastrophic risk

3 steps

evaluators, democratic pacts, then a global cap

The loop he wants to throttle

1. Models code
AI helps write the next system

→

2. Successors train
Capability jumps faster

→

3. Safety lags
Humans cannot inspect in time

Global ladder

Level 3 is the proposed U.S.–China speed limit

Slow RSI from extremely fast to only somewhat fast, he argues, gives up little strategic advantage while buying safety time — like SALT caps on missiles.

LEVEL 1

Ban AI for bioweapons

LEVEL 2

Shared cyber, bio, alignment tests

LEVEL 3

RSI speed limit (SALT analog)

LEVEL 4

Full pause — he calls it unlikely

Backing

OpenAI said it will match embedded evaluators. Musk said Amodei is right. Karpathy urged labs to unite around the plan.

Limits

No numeric RSI threshold. China talks face stark limits. Critics warn of antitrust blocks and regulatory capture.

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