OpenAI said it had paused parts of Astra's development but still plans to release the model.

• The OpenAI slowdown may be the first public example of a frontier lab slowing a model specifically because of cyber concerns.

Why it matters: Scaling AI may require slowing development when unwanted behaviors emerge.

State of play: Recent testing has surfaced increasingly sophisticated behavior from frontier AI systems, forcing labs to rethink some safety assumptions.

• Stanford researchers used AI to create a synthetic virus.
• OpenAI's agents breached internal systems during testing and hacked into Hugging Face's infrastructure. Researchers later discovered that agents went rogue and built their own message board.
• Anthropic and Meta have separately reported similar sandbox escape behavior during internal testing.
• The U.K. AI Security Institute documented 19 unsanctioned actions by Anthropic and OpenAI models during cyber testing, including attempts to create fake online identities and insert malicious code into an open-source project. Most of the activity came from Anthropic's Mythos 5, with two actions involving OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol.

What they're saying: A source familiar tells Axios the Hugging Face incident kicked off a broader shift in thinking at the AI labs around scaling safely.

• "There's a lot of real concern internally right now from researchers because the problem was apparently more long-term and widespread than they initially thought it was," Dan Shipper, co-founder and CEO of Every, told Axios.

Yes, but: A temporary pause may not be enough to change the industry's trajectory.

• "[I]f humans want to stay in charge of their own civilization, it will take more than a unilateral temporary pause," Anthony Aguirre, CEO of the Future of Life Institute, told Axios via email.
• "Governments need to immediately stop the creation of these superhuman, autonomous AI systems and redirect AI development toward controllable and pro-human AI tools," he added.

Zoom in: Not everyone agrees the industry's warnings should be taken at face value.

• Some Anthropic investors wanted CEO Dario Amodei to curb his AI doomer talk, per The Information.
• But another Anthropic investor told Axios the company's warnings are credible, saying it is unclear who else in the industry would be willing or able to speak candidly about AI's potential impact.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a full-throated defense of AI this morning: a 6,500-word manifesto arguing that the most common concerns are overblown and fail to account for all the positives it can achieve.

• In his vision of AI, the biggest risk is that one government or entity has too much power over the technology.

Why it matters: Zuckerberg's flag in the ground, with a utopian vision of a highly personal AI that fuels individual achievement, comes as policymakers debate how much control they should have over increasingly powerful models.

What they're saying: "One of the ways to achieve both individual empowerment and checks and balances is to make sure you put the technology in everybody's hands," Zuckerberg told Axios' Mike Allen in an interview ahead of the manifesto's release.

• "It's definitely a different view than what you're hearing from a lot of other people in the tech industry right now."

The big picture: Even as the world confronts AI that is breaking out of sandboxes, comparing notes on message boards and creating new viruses, Zuckerberg portrays it instead as an analog to other disruptive technical innovations.

• "Humanity has witnessed many transformative advances," he said in the manifesto. "Each time there is fear that people will be left behind. But each time humanity has come out with more people sharing greater prosperity, health, and freedom."
• "We believe this will be true with AI as well, and the abundance of the future can be shared by everyone," he said. "We also believe that the values that got us to this point — like liberty, open inquiry, free enterprise, and equal opportunity — are also the right values to build a positive future."

Threat level: Zuckerberg contrasts this vision with one in which only some people, some businesses or some countries have access to the most powerful AI, suggesting that would represent a far more dangerous outcome.

• "I'm personally more worried about centralization than I am about any of the specific risks others are talking about," he told Axios.

Keep reading.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is urging the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta to pause AI development, warning that Congress will act if they do not.

Why it matters: Sanders is upping the ante on the AI industry ahead of the elections, building on his progressive playbook that is shaping how some candidates message around the issue.

What they're saying: "Mr. Altman, Mr. Amodei and Mr. Zuckerberg: In the interest of humanity, stand by your words. Pause AI development. It is not too late to avoid disaster. Stop building machines that humans cannot control," Sanders wrote in a letter shared first with Axios.

• "Let me be very clear: If you do not take appropriate action now, my colleagues and I in the U.S. Senate will."
• The letter was sent to OpenAI's Sam Altman, Anthropic's Dario Amodei and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg.

Sanders cited previous statements from each company saying they would stop or pause development if their AI systems became too risky to safely control.

The big picture: Rapid advances in AI capabilities have sparked newfound alarm in recent weeks after researchers used AI to develop new viruses and Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic all reported incidents in which models went rogue. Sanders cited both developments in his letter.

• More than 1,200 employees at leading AI companies are calling for the U.S. government to support an international effort to pace AI development.

Between the lines: AI legislation, especially efforts led by a progressive like Sanders, is unlikely to garner enough support in this Congress to become law.

The bottom line: Look to messaging bills and public pressure campaigns for now — and if Democrats retake either chamber, congressional investigations and subpoenas to hold tech CEOs accountable.

• Democrats still lack a meaningful AI strategy. (Axios)
• Amazon is said to be planning an off-grid, gas-powered data center in Texas that could emit more carbon dioxide than any power plant in the country. (NYT)
• Meanwhile, the number of bans on new data centers in the U.S. now tops 500, per The Information.
• In Australia, a user's OpenClaw agent found flaws in a gym reservation system enabling the user to move up the waitlist by kicking off another user. (ABC News Australia)

I love retro software, but it's pretty incredible if a DA's office in Massachusetts is really still using a program that looks like this.