Leaders in AI have joined a refrain to slow the pace of innovation as fears of AI’s risk to humanity mount. Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis, Satya Nadella, and Elon Musk have all commented on the concerns, while President Trump insists that competing with China is paramount. Former Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, now an Independent, calls on President Trump to use his executive power to pause AI IPOs until regulation is passed. CNBC’s Leslie Picker reports on the IPO timeline for Anthropic and OpenAI amid the calls for a slowdown. Plus, Elon Musk biographer Walter Isaacson considers methods for humans to maintain control of AI. Leslie Picker - 19:36 Joe Manchin - 24:49 Walter Isaacson - 42:31 In this episode: Joe Kernen, @JoeSquawk Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Joe Manchin, @Sen_JoeManchin Leslie Picker, @LesliePicker Katie Kramer, @Kramer_Katie Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Calls for an AI Slowdown 9/14/26

Squawk Pod

[SPEAKER_07] Bring in show music, please.

[SPEAKER_04] Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod. Pause. The race to succeed in artificial intelligence hitting the brakes.

[SPEAKER_10] And they were talking about these risks then. Dario was talking about these risks then. I think I first met Demis in 2013. They were talking about this then.

[SPEAKER_04] Leaders in AI from Anthropic, Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and DeepMind's Demis Hassabis say it may be time to slow the pace of AI to keep it safe. But who told them to go super fast anyway?

[SPEAKER_06] I want to see the prospectus and see their risk factors that they have to put into this.

[SPEAKER_04] And what about the future of the AI companies on Wall Street? Ahead of expected blockbuster listings, former Senator Joe Manchin says Washington should get involved.

[SPEAKER_08] I'm asking President Trump to use the power you have to create an executive order that prevents any IPOs until there's passed legislation that basically protects America.

[SPEAKER_04] But he adds a dose of realism.

[SPEAKER_08] If you think they're going to fix it, they won't. There's no incentive for Congress to fix anything today because they're too busy fighting each other.

[SPEAKER_02] Plus. There's a 10% chance it destroys humanity. That's one person saying. No, no, no. That's a lot of people now.

[SPEAKER_04] Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk's biographer on managing innovation.

[SPEAKER_02] We should be pushing AI systems to be more closely connected and in the control of humans rather than swarms of agents that are designed to do things without humans.

[SPEAKER_04] It's Monday, September 14th, 2026. Squawk Pod begins right now.

[SPEAKER_07] Stand back to you by in three, two, one. Cue, please.

Calls for an AI Slowdown 9/14/26

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Calls for an AI Slowdown 9/14/26

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.