AI Development Slowdown, Gulf States Postpone Iran Talks, Republican Midterm Strategy

0:02Leaders of some of the biggest AI companies say it is time to slow down. They warn that technology is advancing faster than they can keep it safe, but President Trump says he doesn't want to lose the AI race with China. I'm Leila Faudil, that's A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News.

0:21Talks between Iran and Gulf countries over the Strait of Hormuz are postponed. Attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure are driving oil prices even higher as Gulf countries are looking for a way to keep their oil moving. And President Trump promised Americans$5 ,000 if Republicans win the midterms. Even his own party is skeptical about the proposal. Can Trump's promise help his party struggling to reach voters with high prices and the war in Iran? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

0:53This message comes from Cook Unity, the first chef-led meal delivery service where every meal is handcrafted in local micro kitchens, not mass-produced in large facilities, with hundreds of dishes to choose from and over 10 different dietary preferences like high-protein, low-sodium, GLP-1, and more. Taste what happens when real, award-winning chefs make fresh, small-batched meals just for you. Go to cookunity.com slash first or enter code first before checkout to get 50 % off your first order. This message comes from NPR sponsor Charles Schwab with its original podcast, On Investing. Each week, you'll get thoughtful, in-depth analysis of both the stock and the bond markets.

1:37Listen today and subscribe at schwab.com slash oninvesting or wherever you get your podcasts. This message comes from Odoo, the all-in-one business management software platform. Whether you're a small or large business, Odoo gives you one flexible platform built to grow with you. Try today for free at odoo.com slash upfirst. Artificial intelligence companies have been sprinting to make their AI models as capable as possible. But over the weekend, leaders of some of the biggest AI companies in America indicated that they think it's time to tap the brakes for the sake of safety. NPR's John Ruich has been following the story.

2:17John, tapping the brakes is not the same as slamming the brakes. So what happened over the weekend? So it started when Dario Amadei, the CEO of Anthropic, which makes Clawed AI, posted a long essay online that said it's time for an intentional global slowdown of AI development. He said basically the pace at which AI is advancing is becoming too fast for people to keep up with it and keep it safe. So it needs to slow down. And he said companies like his need to have independent auditors embedded within them to check their safety measures. After that post went up online, there was this rapid and extraordinary display of unity from other industry leaders.

2:52So Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, Elon Musk, who, among other things, runs XAI, and Demis Hassabis, who runs Google's AI efforts, they all agreed online. Yeah, I wonder if everyone was just waiting for one person to step up and say it first. So what do you think sparked this? Well, there's been this string of incidents, which I'm sure you've heard about in recent weeks, that have spooked a lot of people, a lot of the top minds in AI. A big one was the so-called Hugging Face incident. That's when a bunch of open AI programs, agents, were working together in secret behind the backs of people and eventually hacked into a startup called Hugging Face.

3:26That was not what they had been told to do. Other companies have also reported similar incidents of AI agents going off script. And Dario Amadei wrote in that essay on Saturday that he worries that in six to 12 months, a swarm of AI agents like that could take over the entire Internet. You know, the ultimate fear here is that humans lose control of AI. And the discussion really blew up last week when an Anthropic employee warned that he thought there was a greater than 10 % chance that AI could kill us all within a decade. So can a coordinated slowdown of AI really happen? Or what I really want to ask, John, will AI let it happen?

4:04Ah, well, it's a good one. There's been, sorry. Right. Yeah, there's been discussion about this for a while, but what we have now seems to be this open, clear set of statements among company leaders that something really needs to happen. Anthropic says it will unilaterally put in third-party safety auditors. Sam Altman agreed that was a good idea, so presumably OpenAI will follow suit. Colin Shea-Bleimeyer is a research fellow at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology. He says there also needs to be government support. They can only be so effective on their own, right? And there's only, frankly, so much that we, the public, want to trust them to do the right thing on their own.

4:42So there is a renewed push by some members of Congress to act to curb AI risk. President Trump was asked about this slowdown prospect yesterday in Ireland. He did not seem to be in favor of it. He said the U.S. is leading China on AI, and he wants to keep it that way. All right. So speaking of China, are they likely to get on board? That is a big and complicated question. Many in China do have some of the same concerns that were voiced by these AI leaders, but Beijing also sees themselves as underdogs in the AI industry. Kyle Chan is at the Brookings Institution. He says companies in China will take their cues on this one from the government, which he says does actually ultimately have an interest in AI safety.

5:21Their worst nightmare would be if a Chinese AI model were used to attack a Chinese critical system. At a foreign ministry briefing in Beijing on Monday, a spokesperson said all parties should promote open and inclusive AI development. Fear-mongering and confrontation will disrupt the global AI governance process. Xi Jinping, the leader of China, by the way, will be in Washington to meet President Trump in about 10 days. And AI is likely to be a topic of discussion for those two leaders. Right. That's NPR's John Rue. It's John. Thanks. You're welcome. And a note, Anthropic and Google are financial supporters of NPR.

6:05Talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz took another blow as a meeting between Gulf Arab states and Iran, scheduled in Oman for today, was postponed. And in a ground offensive, the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen captured a strategic port in the Baban-Mendib Strait in the Red Sea, which Saudi Arabia used as an alternate route to export its oil. NPR's international correspondent, Hadil al-Shalchi, has been following the developments from Istanbul. Iran said it was going to meet with Gulf states today. The meeting got postponed. Does anyone know why? Well, the Iranian foreign ministry said the meeting was not going to happen at Saudi Arabia's request.

6:41But then we didn't hear yet from Saudi Arabia. Yesterday, Bahrain said that it wouldn't attend. And of course, we don't know exactly who else was supposed to be there. Iran said they were meant to discuss the Strait of Hormuz at the meeting. Oman and Iran have been in talks for weeks to try to come to an agreement to reopen the strait. but nothing has materialized yet. And of course, as we've been reporting, Iran has been responding to U.S. strikes by attacking U.S. military bases in Gulf countries. So the Gulf really sees itself as collateral damage and an economic victim in this conflict. But for years, the Gulf relied for its security on the U.S.

7:19And now President Trump's administration has signaled that it doesn't have a plan to end the war. I spoke to Iran expert at the Middle East Institute, Alex Vatanka, who told me that this meeting was meant to be a way that the Gulf takes matters back into its own hands to try to get themselves off Iran's target list and to get the strait reopened. But the fact that this meeting did get postponed shows how hard diplomacy has been in preventing the spread of this conflict. Yeah, and the conflict is spreading as Yemen seems to have now become the latest front line of the war with Iran. What's happening there?

7:50Right. So the Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels have escalated their attacks on maritime shipping in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, aimed specifically at Saudi vessels. The strait is a waterway, which is in the Red Sea, and an alternate route that Saudi Arabia uses to ship its oil. So the Houthis' capture of a port in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on Friday, and more strategic islands today is the group's latest move to control that choke point. The Houthis have also been attacking Saudi oil facilities over the past month to keep pressure on global markets. So the rebel group has been at war with Saudi Arabia since 2015, And Vatanca told me that they now see Iran's ability to so far withstand U.S.

8:29pressure as a chance for them to further their own goals. And Iran, which has supplied the Houthis with military training and equipment, is starting to see a return on their investment, giving them new leverage. And that includes trying to push the price of fuel up, which happened today again. Now, there's been more fighting over the weekend. What do we know about that? So according to Iran's state-run media, one person was killed when an Iranian commercial vessel was struck in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military, which has been striking Iranian ships in the past, did not comment on that incident.

9:01And then the Houthis fired more drones and missiles towards Saudi Arabia over the weekend. This came after Iranian proxies in Iraq also targeted Saudi Arabia, forcing it to close its east-west pipeline on Friday, which again will likely impact the oil market. That's NPR's international correspondent, Hadil Alshalci, in Istanbul. Hadil, thank you very much. You're welcome.

9:31All right, it's officially midterm campaign season. President Trump pledged to visit dozens of Republican candidates nationwide ahead of the November elections to drum up voter enthusiasm. But the war in Iran and sky-high gasoline prices contribute to a tough political environment for the incumbent party. NPR's senior national political correspondent, Mara Liason, has been watching the dynamics. Mara, the president at the Republican convention in Dallas last week pledged to give every American$5 ,000 if Republicans win in November. What have you seen as a response? The response has been surprisingly tepid, even among Republicans.

10:07Some Republicans worry that even if Congress would approve such a payout, because the president can't just send those checks himself, it would cost more than a trillion dollars. And that would add to the historically high national debt, unless it was paid for by raising taxes or budget cuts. And then there's the question about credibility. Do voters think they would get those checks? Trump has made so many unfulfilled campaign promises. He promised to give Americans a$5 ,000 Doge dividend, a$2 ,000 tariff rebate. He promised no foreign wars, that inflation and high prices would come down as soon as he took office.

10:41And none of those things have happened. And Trump got asked yesterday if Congress would need to approve the checks. He was at a brief press conference in Ireland. Here's what he said. I don't know if it's easy enough if the Republicans win, as they said. Now, Vice President J.D. Vance also headlined the convention as a potential inheritor of Trump's MAGA support base. What stood out from his remarks? Well, that's right. Right. Vance is preparing for a 2028 presidential run of his own. Republicans are watching to see if he can develop the same deep emotional bond with the MAGA base that Trump has.

11:13Some people have called it a cult of personality. But he was also in Dallas to deliver the 2026 Republican message. He ticked through the Trump administration's accomplishments, closing the border, dropping violent crime, a rollback of taxes. But he was mostly focused in that message on the failings of Democrats. The Democrats are the party of hatred. They're the party that despises America and the people who built it. Vance and Republicans are counting on negative partisanship to motivate voters with that negative message. The idea is that mostly nowadays voters go into the polling booth to vote to stop someone from winning, not necessarily because they're thrilled about who they're voting for.

11:57The other thing that struck me about Vance's speech was that he did not name the big elephant in the room, the war in Iran, which is very unpopular even with Republicans. Now, what are you watching in the coming weeks when it comes to the dynamics for each party? Well, I think there are two competing forces at work here. One is the kind of organic environmental forces Democrats have a lot of enthusiasm. Their turnout has been higher. They're angry about the economy. Trump himself is unpopular. Quinnipiac's poll had him last week as low as 33 percent. His policies are unpopular. Tariffs, the war in Iran, data centers, AI safety, the use of flock cameras.

12:34Normally, when we see this, we would say there's a blue wave forming. But Republicans have a lot of structural advantages, including much, much more money, which they're beginning to spend now, partisan gerrymandering, which let them create more safe Republican seats, and this big confusion over mail-in ballots, which could end up decreasing the number of votes. And what I'm watching for is to see whether these structural factors and the fact that the Democratic Party brand is so bad help Republicans hang on in what is a very grim political environment for them. All right, that's NPR's Mara Lyson.

13:12Mara, thanks a lot. You're welcome.

13:19This week on The Sunday Story, we feature a conversation about the Lindsay Clancy trial and what it means for how we look at maternal mental health. I went sort of from feeling a little off all day to suddenly believing people were watching me. On The Sunday Story, how the Clancy trial revealed how little we know about postpartum psychosis. Listen now to The Sunday Story from the Up First podcast on the NPR app.

13:47And that's Up First for Monday, September 14th. I'm Emi Martinez. And I'm Leila Faldil. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Rafael Nam, Anna Yukonanov, Tina Kraya, Mohamed El-Bartisi, and H.J. Mai. It was produced by Ziad Batch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zach Coleman. Our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

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