Two cheers (out of three) for Dario Amodei

Substack · Watch/Read · (gathered 2026-09-16)

• Gary Marcus offers “two cheers (out of three)” for Dario Amodei’s essay “We Must Pace the Frontier,” which advocates for slowing AI development, praising the call for transparency but expressing deep skepticism about the industry’s motives and the effectiveness of its proposed solutions.
• Marcus criticizes Amodei’s essay for starting with “hypey bullshit” and views the proposed “pacing” and “third-party evaluators” (like METR) as potentially self-serving ploys, such as “pulling up the ladder” or a form of “regulatory capture” to preempt genuine government oversight.
• Marcus highlights Amodei’s “hypocrisy” in using China as a “punching bag” to justify continued acceleration, arguing this hinders necessary global dialogue and is another “pull-up-the-ladders” move.
• Marcus argues that Amodei’s proposal “sidesteps” more critical policy options like imposing liability and criminal charges for negligent AI agents and implementing product recalls for dangerous AI, which he believes are essential for true safety alongside transparency.