According to Wired, leaders in the AI industry worry that existing antitrust regulations might make it illegal for companies to jointly agree to slow down their AI development efforts. The concern reflects growing tensions between the desire for industry-wide caution and the legal frameworks that govern competition.

The report highlights a fundamental legal challenge: coordinating an industry slowdown could resemble the kind of anti-competitive collusion that antitrust laws are designed to prevent. This tension underscores the difficulty of achieving collective action on AI safety or development speed without running afoul of competition law.