The AI Futures Project, a prominent AI safety group, is trying a different pitch on the future of artificial intelligence: Instead of focusing only on catastrophic outcomes, it is arguing that slowing the most advanced AI work could help protect the prosperity the technology is supposed to deliver.
What's happening?
In its new "AI 2040: Plan A" report, the AI Futures Project calls for the U.S. and China to jointly pause frontier AI research for a time.
The group is led by former OpenAI researcher Daniel Kokotajlo, and Semafor reports that the aim is to create breathing room for basic AI safety measures.
That argument differs from the group's earlier emphasis. After spending last year warning that unrestrained AI progress could be disastrous for humanity, it now contends that a pause would still leave plenty of room for AI-driven gains, because today's systems may already be sufficient to power years of innovation and growth.
As Kokotajlo told Semafor, "We're not exactly de-growthers."
He added, "But if you want to actually benefit from that growth and abundance, you need to avoid the risks involved."
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AI accelerationists have already pushed back on the idea. They reject the "doomer" view that superintelligent AI is bound to wipe out humanity, while the report frames its own position as supportive of growth rather than hostile to AI.
Why does it matter?
The report's core case is that major AI benefits do not require an uninterrupted race to ever more advanced models. Current AI systems could still underpin several years of innovation and economic growth even if frontier development stopped today, provided more data-center capacity and other infrastructure are built out.
How governments and companies manage AI development could help determine whether the technology improves daily life or creates new costs and vulnerabilities.
What's being done?
The AI Futures Project wants a temporary pause in frontier AI development, alongside efforts to put safer-development "scaffolding" in place.
The report also outlines methods meant to stop China and other countries from secretly pulling ahead.
Selling that plan will be hard. It would require an uncommon level of cross-border cooperation even as geopolitical rivalry remains fierce, and the proposal is pie-in-the-sky under current conditions.
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