OpenAI Inquires with Congress Over Feasibility of Industry-Wide AI Slowdown

OpenAI has begun discreetly sounding out members of the U.S. Congress on whether an industry-wide agreement to decelerate frontier AI development would run afoul of federal antitrust laws. The informal inquiry reflects a growing dilemma among leading labs: while unilateral caution carries the immediate risk of losing technological ground, orchestrating a coordinated pause requires explicit regulatory shelter. By approaching lawmakers directly, OpenAI is testing whether competitive restraint can be formalized into policy before the current race renders self-regulation impossible.