# Amodei Asks for Inspectors in the Building — Altman and Musk Say They Agree

Times of AI Desk · 2026-09-12 · Policy

[https://timesof.ai/2026/09/amodei-pace-the-frontier](https://timesof.ai/2026/09/amodei-pace-the-frontier)

> Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published “We Must Pace the Frontier,” committing Anthropic unilaterally to METR-class evaluators with employee-like access. Sam Altman said OpenAI will do the same; Elon Musk said Dario is right. Pacing is not a halt.

**Corrected October 14, 2026:** Corrected the summary of Amodei's three steps to match the essay: export controls and anti-distillation belong to step 2 (pacing within democracies); step 3 is global pacing, which he says requires cooperation with China.

Amodei and Altman just backed inspectors in the building in public, and Musk endorsed Amodei's call. That is cheaper than a halt and more than a blog.

**Dario Amodei** (September 12) published **“We Must Pace the Frontier”** on **darioamodei.com** — **not** the Anthropic newsroom. Drivers: summer **RSI** (AI building the next AI) and the **OpenAI–Hugging Face** swarm. Warning: in **6–12 months** a more capable misaligned swarm could take over the internet via a persistent botnet, **hundreds of billions** in damage. **Pacing ≠ halt.** Three steps: (1) **embedded evaluators** (METR-class) with **employee-like** access (desks, badges, laptops) and the right to publish, subject to narrow confidentiality and legal/privacy redactions — **Anthropic unilaterally commits**; (2) **democratic coordination** — companies in democracies setting common safety standards and limits on the rate of progress, while keeping democracies’ lead over autocracies (no powerful chips to China, crackdowns on smuggling and unauthorized distillation); (3) **global pacing**, which Amodei says “will require cooperation with China,” via agreements of increasing difficulty. **Sam Altman** on X: independent evaluators with employee-like access is “a great idea” and **“we will do the same.”** **Elon Musk**: “Dario is right.”

This is **industry-wide permanent** embedding. Not Coxon resignation (September 9), not August 27 **cyber letter**.

## What he is (and is not) proposing

| Item | Essay Sep 12 |
|------|--------------|
| **Halt training?** | **No** |
| **Anthropic commit** | Unilateral **embedded evals** |
| **OpenAI** | Altman: **will do the same** |
| **xAI** | Musk **agrees** (no process detail) |

Watch: **badges and laptops**, not adjectives — and whether **China policy** in step 3 guts the coalition.

## Sources

- [Dario Amodei: We Must Pace the Frontier (September 12, 2026)](https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontier)
- [TechCrunch: Anthropic CEO outlines plan to pace the frontier (September 12, 2026)](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/12/anthropic-ceo-outlines-plan-to-pace-the-frontier/)