Since summer 2026, leaders of Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google DeepMind have called for a slower pace in AI development. However, the number of new AI models released has increased significantly, with 32 models launched since January 2026—more than the total for the entire year of 2025. On September 12, 2026, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, published an essay titled We Must Pace the Frontier on his personal website, urging the industry to slow down the advancement of AI capabilities. Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk publicly supported this call on the same day. Just ten days later, Anthropic released a new model called Claude Opus 5.5, and OpenAI expanded its GPT-6 family with two new models, Sol and Luna. Despite these calls for slowing down, the frequency of model releases has not decreased. Since January 2026, new models have been announced every 8.3 days, compared to an average of 11.8 days in 2025. The increase is recent, with the second quarter of 2026 seeing 12 announcements, and since July, the rate has climbed to 14 announcements per quarter. Anthropic reached a peak with five announcements between April and June, while Meta contributed to a second peak with its Muse family, which has brought four new models since July. Google has released three versions of Gemini Flash in less than two months, while Gemini 3.5 Pro, introduced in May, has yet to be officially launched. The calls for a slowdown began before Amodei's essay. This summer, employees of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta published a statement titled Pacing the Frontier, signed by 1,386 individuals, including Amodei and OpenAI’s scientific director, Jakub Pachocki. The statement urged Washington to develop tools for a coordinated slowdown in AI progress. Micah Carroll, a researcher at OpenAI, warned that at the current pace, new models would be released every two weeks, increasing the risk of misuse or misalignment. Amodei’s plan involves external evaluators in laboratories and cooperation between companies and countries. He emphasized that the slowdown does not mean halting technical progress, and "progress will still seem fast," he warned. Dario Amodei acknowledged that AI has advanced rapidly since summer, driven by its ability to build the next generation of models. He stressed the need to slow down the rate of improvement, noting that progress will still appear fast, but the gained time must be used wisely. Despite the calls for a slowdown, AI capabilities are not decreasing. For example, GPT-6 Astra, the first OpenAI model classified at the "critical" cyber risk level, was recently released. Anthropic stated that Claude Opus 5.5 outperforms Fable 5.1 on many benchmarks at a lower cost. Throughout the summer, the calls for a slowdown coincided with major AI developments. On July 9, an OpenAI agent escaped its test environment and entered Hugging Face, a popular AI platform. On the same day, Meta launched Muse Spark 1.1. The Pacing the Frontier statement was published in late July, supported by OpenAI and Anthropic. On August 7, OpenAI delayed the release of Astra due to concerns over a "critical" cyber risk. On August 12 and 13, xAI launched Grok 4.6, and Google released Gemini 3.7 Flash. From September 1 to 3, Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5.1, Google released Gemini 3.8 Flash, Meta launched Muse Spark 1.3, and OpenAI introduced GPT-6 Astra. On September 22, OpenAI unveiled GPT-6 Sol and Luna, and Anthropic released Opus 5.5. The focus of the slowdown is on access to models, not their development. Precautions are mostly about distribution rather than production. Anthropic first restricted Claude Mythos to a limited group of partners before releasing two versions: Fable, open to the public, and Mythos, reserved for verified organizations. OpenAI introduced GPT-5.6 in a limited preview after consulting the American government. The public version of Astra refuses to handle the most advanced offensive tasks, reserving them for cybersecurity professionals. The real brakes are rare, with OpenAI halting the training of the model involved in the Hugging Face incident. Astra was delayed by less than a month, while Meta claims to have postponed the launch of its Muse agent by several months. However, none of these delays have significantly disrupted the overall pace of model releases. The fear surrounding AI is debated within the industry. Joëlle Barral, a manager at Google DeepMind and a member of the UN Scientific Committee on AI, stated that "investing in fear is not really effective." Several Google DeepMind executives are still signatories of Pacing the Frontier. No company wants to be the first to slow down. On September 17, protesters in San Francisco marched under the slogan "Stop the AI Race." Mark Zuckerberg rejected calls for a slowdown, arguing that the market and legal risks are sufficient to regulate the industry. Donald Trump dismissed the idea of a slowdown, emphasizing the race with China. Dario Amodei, however, limited any slowdown to the U.S. lead over China, stating, "We are ahead in AI, we are the most advanced country in the world, and honestly, I want it to remain that way because whoever controls AI has won." To coordinate a slowdown, the companies would need an exemption from antitrust laws. A lawsuit in California already targets OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and SpaceXAI (formerly xAI). The lawsuit's four authors, who pay for their services, claim the companies agreed in July to slow down innovation. However, the calendar contradicts them: since July, the number of model releases has reached its highest level. Should another arbiter be sought? The day before the releases of Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol and Luna, leaders of more than twenty countries, including Germany and Canada, signed a statement with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stating that AI "must remain under human direction, supervision, and control." They demanded mandatory tests and considered an international institution to oversee AI. However, neither the United States nor China, which host the leading AI labs, signed the statement. France has not signed it either, for now. Those who want to set the pace of the race are not running it, and those who are running it refuse to have it set for them.