"AI pause: the case for ASAP" by KatjaGrace cover art

"AI pause: the case for ASAP" by KatjaGrace

"AI pause: the case for ASAP" by KatjaGrace

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I often hear people say they think we should pause AI at some point, but not yet. Their basis for this seems to be some combination of:

  • If we pause at the last possible moment, then we will have the most advanced AI possible during the pause, which will be helpful for doing AI safety research during the pause

  • Implicitly, there is some quantity of ‘pausing credit’, that will buy us a few months of pause say, and if we use them now, we won’t have them to use later, when it is important

  • If we pause, and then AI doesn’t seem to be at dire risk of destroying the world, maybe the public will backlash against this and it will be harder to do any kind of AI safety (especially if it has major economic consequences)

  • The models aren’t dangerous yet

This all sounds very questionable to me. I suggest instead that the following are at least as likely to be true:

  • We can’t pause on a dime at the precise second that ‘we’ decide it is important to—pulling the breaks will take a while, during which time we will continue [...]

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First published:
June 24th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mEhS4wYTy9JXEpe9p/ai-pause-the-case-for-asap

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