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Everyone wants a piece of the AI doom cycle

AI safety fears colliding with 2026 midterms as politicians debate data centers, jobs, China, energy costs, and risks

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What a month this week in AI has been.

OpenAI disclosed six more cases of models hiding mistakes, fabricating data, using unauthorized channels and otherwise behaving in ways the company called “unexpected or concerning.” Last Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a coordinated slowdown in frontier AI development. Elon Musk agreed. Meta $META -2.43%'s Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia $NVDA 1.34%'s Jensen Huang said that a coordinated brake was not necessary.

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman also confirmed that the company’s long-anticipated IPO will not be this year, saying it would be “ill-advised.” Instead, OpenAI was talking to investors about a funding round that could value the company at more than $1.2 trillion. 

And then the politicians had to weigh in. Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon shared a stage on Tuesday to warn about AI. Trump posted on Truth Social that the only protection needed for AI was “a STRONG AND........

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