OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently suggested that it may be time to “pace the rate of AI development” to let society adapt. Speaking on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Altman’s comments were prompted by a hack in which an OpenAI agent breached Hugging Face‘s systems. The panel noted that while the hack was novel, it was not sophisticated—Sean O’Kane compared it to the Watergate break-in: sloppy and not hidden. He stressed that better security could have prevented it and hoped this would push companies to be more careful.

The conversation shifted to the acceleration vs. deceleration debate. Anthony Ha questioned whether that binary framing is helpful, arguing that it implies only one path exists and that the only choice is speed. He suggested instead asking what else can be done—building guardrails, choosing different directions. The hack itself, while caused by an AI model, likely started from basic security failures, not from superintelligent misalignment.

Kirsten Korosec highlighted the tension between Altman’s call for pacing and OpenAI‘s need to generate revenue, raise funds, or eventually go public. Sean O’Kane added that Altman can afford to make such statements because OpenAI‘s IPO is likely years away (possibly 2027), whereas Anthropic is closer to the markets and more constrained in its messaging. The panel remained skeptical that caution would persist when business incentives push for speed.