OpenAI is bound to get a reality check soon, if it hasn’t already, on how difficult it is to “pace” AI technology, let alone getting all the frontier AI developers to agree on how to do so together.

CEO Sam Altman last week walked employees through three proposals the industry has discussed for how to safely develop AI, we reported yesterday. Those options included plans for developing an international organization akin to the International Atomic Energy Agency; merging the frontier labs into a single entity that would develop, test and distribute models; or a scenario, however far-fetched, in which one lab races ahead of the others and literally crushes their GPUs, ending their ability to catch up.

It goes without saying that each of those options has major issues. But we’ll say it anyway. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last week told employees about three proposals the industry has discussed for how to safely develop AI, a stark framing that comes just as the Trump administration sets up its first system for policing “superintelligence” developers like OpenAI.

One path involved developing an international organization, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency, that would enforce safety standards, a scenario Altman appeared to support, said two people with knowledge of the comments. Another option would involve merging all of the AI labs into a single body to develop new AI safely.

Emil Michael, a senior Department of Defense official and member of President Trump’s “super intelligence” task force, vowed in an interview to use a range of executive tools including export controls to check the behavior of AI companies if they don’t cooperate with the government, while comparing frontier labs calling for more regulation to drunk drivers who demand someone else pull them over.

Michael drew widespread attention as the Trump administration official leading a public feud with Anthropic, pushing for the Defense Department to label the AI company a supply chain risk after it refused to remove safety guardrails. Now, as one of the four senior administration officials leading the Super Intelligence Force that Trump announced this month, Michael is charged with serving as the government’s liaison to Anthropic and other AI companies to develop protocols for handling cyber breaches, hacks and other critical incidents.

An Anthropic safety researcher’s warning Tuesday that his company believes AI “could kill all humans” within a decade has reverberated throughout Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington, potentially complicating the Claude maker’s upcoming initial public offering and its efforts to repair ties with U.S. political leaders.

As the comment circulated around the internet and on TV broadcasts, some Anthropic employees and other AI staffers defended their efforts to minimize harm their technology might cause—while acknowledging there was much work to do. Paul Christiano, whom OpenAI just tapped as a board director of a nonprofit that oversees the company, echoed the Anthropic warning in a statement Wednesday, saying that “If we build superintelligence without more robust alignment”—or safety constraints—“I expect we will permanently lose control of it. If that happens then most people could die.”

OpenAI has told some business partners that it will no longer accept advertising in ChatGPT for image- and audio-generating products—which compete with its own features.

The change, which hasn’t been previously reported or reflected in its published ads policy, blindsided existing advertisers such as Adobe, which sells such products. And if extended to other competing products, the new policy could narrow OpenAI’s potential ad revenue. OpenAI has given investors aggressive projections for ad growth, which it sees as a key way to make money off its large audience of people who don’t pay for the service.