Dylan Patel
Bridging the gap between business and the worlds most important industry.
“Dario can't slow down because he doesn't trust Sam and Sam's not going to slow down. And Sam can't slow down much because same with Dario. … And neither of them can slow down because China is not too far behind.”
Big Technology · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · October 2026
Asked whether the frontier AI labs will pace their own progress, Patel says pacing would be the responsible thing if you believe the technology could kill us, but that the race leaves very little room for it. He allows that they will slow a little after big security incidents. The host's reply: "That's reassuring."
Transcript
I think it's completely talk about
that. You don't think that's going to happen. That's true at all.
I think Pacing the Frontier is a responsible thing to do if you believe that we could kill ourselves. I don't necessarily think that they will pace the frontier too much, though. I think there's very little pacing they can do given the race that they're in. And people have made skits about this, but like, you know, Dario can't slow down because he doesn't trust Sam and Sam's not going to slow down. And Sam can't slow down much because same with Dario. Obviously, they're going to slow down a little bit when they have these massive security incidents. And neither of them can slow down because China is not too far behind. So it's like sort of like very difficult.
That's reassuring. All right. Look, we're going to take a quick break. And then when we come back, we're going to talk a little bit about the state of the AI clouds, the Cluster Max, of course. And then we'll continue on with some more questions about the technology and the business. So we'll do that when we're back right after this.
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