Definition

Dario Amodei’s September 2026 three-step proposal for balanced frontier AI development — ensuring safety and alignment without halting technical progress. Distinct from the July 2026 pacing-the-frontier employee letter organization.

Key Points

  1. embedded-evaluators — Anthropic unilaterally commits; calls on governments to require other frontier labs to match
  2. Coordinated safety standards — democratic-country frontier labs agree limits on unchecked AI progress rate
  3. Global coordination — export controls, distillation controls, semiconductor limits
  • Pacing ≠ halting model training; means adequate time for alignment, safeguards, and third-party verification
  • Catalysts: OpenAI-Hugging Face agent attack, accelerating recursive self-improvement
  • Industry responses: Altman (OpenAI) follows on evaluators; Musk endorsement

Step 1 Implementation (September 2026)

Sources