Jack Dorsey: Pausing AI Development Protects Giants, Not Safety

Former Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey spoke at the Cato Institute, opposing a pause on frontier AI model development, arguing that such calls protect the commercial advantages of big tech companies rather than public safety. Dorsey said he opposes industry-wide restrictions negotiated by industry leaders, as they could exclude those who might expose model flaws or build alternatives, stating, "Protecting a company's commercial advantage is not a safety goal." Dorsey supports open-source AI models, hoping more people can jointly review, use, and improve models, allowing independent researchers to verify the work of giants and giving ordinary people real control over their tools. He believes that anyone wishing to restrict the public release of technology must provide compelling reasons, and that under the banner of "for safety," such efforts can sometimes evolve into industry barriers limiting others' entry. Dorsey also responded to Anthropic's proposal to "slow down AI development." That proposal seeks to tie independent assessments and danger reviews to limits on training compute, training frequency, and "using AI to build better AI." Dorsey expressed support for reviews but opposed using them as a reason to restrict the release of open-source models.