Anthropic and OpenAI's Fake Pause Calls: Vague PR, No Action

Last week, Anthropic released a blog post about recursive self-improvement (RSI) that caused a media frenzy, with outlets claiming the company called for a global pause on AI development. However, the post merely says 'it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause frontier AI development.' OpenAI quickly echoed this with a post co-authored by Sam Altman, also using vague language about 'international coordination' to enable slowing when needed. In reality, neither company commits to any slowdown.

This is a deliberate PR strategy: making vague statements about risks and benefits to signal concern to one audience (employees, media, politicians) while signaling acceleration to techno-optimists and investors. When pressed, Anthropic's Jack Clark told CNN, 'We’ve built amazingly powerful technology. We’re going to keep building it.' CEO Dario Amodei previously called an AI pause 'the opposite' of Anthropic's policy. The approach mirrors OpenAI's earlier techniques, undermining Anthropic's reputation as the 'responsible' AI company.