Skip to content
Editorial standardsAdvertise
MeridiansIndependent reporting, reviews and buying advice
LIVE
AI/News

OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Confirm Weeks of AI Safety Talks

OpenAI's policy chief says the three labs have been coordinating on safety standards for weeks, after Anthropic's CEO published a public call to slow down frontier AI development.

Meridians Tech Desk

Published 17 September 2026 · Updated 17 September 2026 · 4 min read

OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Confirm Weeks of AI Safety TalksAI
Photo: Photo by Google DeepMind / Pexels (Pexels License — free to use, no attribution legally required (credited above as good practice).)

The short answer

  • OpenAI global policy chief Chris Lehane told reporters Tuesday that OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind have spent weeks coordinating on AI safety standards, including plans for an industry standards body.
  • The talks follow a September 12 essay from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, 'We Must Pace the Frontier,' proposing a three-part plan to slow frontier AI development; Anthropic is unilaterally granting third-party evaluators permanent, employee-level access to its systems.
  • Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk have all endorsed Amodei's call to slow down; OpenAI says it backs FRONTIER Act provisions requiring independent verification organizations.
  • President Trump has dismissed AI safety concerns as 'a hoax,' and his AI advisor David Sacks called existential-risk fears 'overblown,' citing competition with China.

OpenAI's global policy chief, Chris Lehane, told Washington reporters Tuesday that OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind have spent weeks quietly coordinating on AI safety standards. It's the clearest confirmation yet that the industry's biggest rivals are talking to each other about slowing down.

What started it

The talks follow a September 12 essay from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, titled 'We Must Pace the Frontier.' Amodei laid out a three-part plan for the industry to slow the pace of frontier AI development and avoid what he called catastrophic risks. Anthropic said it would unilaterally commit to the first step: giving third-party safety evaluators permanent, employee-level access to its systems.

Who's on board

  • Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk have all publicly endorsed Amodei's call to slow down.
  • OpenAI says it supports provisions in the FRONTIER Act that would require independent verification organizations to monitor frontier model development.
  • The three labs are discussing forming a standards body for the AI industry and embedding third-party safety evaluators into their operations.

The pushback

President Trump has dismissed the safety concerns as 'a hoax.' His AI advisor, David Sacks, called fears of existential risk 'overblown,' pointing to competitive pressure from China. Altman himself has flagged that coordination between competitors on safety standards could raise antitrust questions; Lehane said the companies don't believe a government waiver is necessary.

Sources

Every factual claim above is traceable to these documents. Check them — that is why they are here.

About this byline

Meridians Tech Desk is an editorial desk at Meridians, not an individual. A desk byline means the article was produced and fact-checked to that desk's published standards. Read our editorial standards and corrections policy.

Sponsored

Paid placement · not editorial

Related reading

The Meridians Brief

One considered email a week

What changed, what it costs you, and what to do about it — from the Meridians desks. No sponsored picks disguised as recommendations.

Sign-up opens with our launch issue. Nothing is sent or stored yet.