Top AI bosses are asking for brakes on their own technology, which sounds alarming for the industry but may also be a move to lock out smaller rivals.

• Anthropic's Dario Amodei says AI is moving too fast to build safely, and wants outside auditors plus permission for labs to coordinate on safety rules.
• Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and executives from Microsoft and Google all signed on to the call for a slower pace.
• The stated fears are concrete: rogue AI agents loose on the internet, cyber attacks, and help designing biological weapons — researchers have already used AI to build viruses that do not exist in nature.
• Critics smell self-interest, arguing the proposal would freeze out AI startups and let a few Silicon Valley firms write the rules for everyone.
• Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, and Senate Republicans reject regulation outright, and DNA-screening rules from the Biden era were suspended with nothing put in their place.

Outlook: Washington looks set to keep pushing speed over safeguards, so any real limits will have to come from the companies themselves — or not at all.