Episode Details
Back to Episodes“How we might actually pace the frontier: A proposal for AI companies to do public pacing exercises.” by Dewi
Description
TL;DR
- This is a proposal for AI companies to conduct public “pacing exercises”, such as halting all pre-training and RL for 2 to 3 days.
- Each exercise could announce its scope in advance and publish findings afterwards, including the evidence of compliance and any limits to what they could verify. Companies could invite independent evaluators to help identify the evidence needed before the exercise, and to assess compliance during the exercise.
- The exercises could be repeated every 1 to 3 months to build the industry's expertise in pacing, and build trust between relevant actors.
- This would help industry and governments to prepare for larger slowdowns in frontier AI development, buying more time for AI alignment and societal preparedness.
What a short pacing exercise could entail
An AI company's “pacing exercise” could be a 2 to 3 day halt in all pre-training and RL.
Before each exercise, the company could invite independent evaluators to help define the questions it will test, and the evidence needed to assess compliance. It could then announce what will stop, what will continue, when the exercise will start and end, and what it aims to learn.
Afterwards, the company could publish what was and [...]
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Outline:
(00:14) TL;DR
(01:04) What a short pacing exercise could entail
(02:14) AI risks are growing, and so is the willingness to pace
(03:22) The immediate benefits of pacing: building capacity
(04:55) The longer-term benefits: paving the way for more robust slowdowns
(05:58) Start small, then expand
(07:01) Call to action
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First published:
September 15th, 2026
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.