More than 1,000 employees from some of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies have signed a petition urging the United States government to slow the pace of advanced AI development following a recent autonomous hacking incident that raised fresh concerns about the technology’s safety.

The petition, signed by employees from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta AI and other organizations, calls on US authorities to support international efforts aimed at managing the rapid progress of advanced AI systems.

Among the signatories are Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s head of research, the strategic lead of Google’s AI subsidiary DeepMind and the chief scientist at Meta AI. OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman did not sign the petition.

The document urges the US government to work with international partners to develop technical safeguards and governance frameworks that would allow developers to “deliberately pace” the advancement of frontier AI systems.

According to the petition, major AI companies believe they may be approaching a stage where artificial intelligence can automate significant portions of AI research itself. The signatories warned that such progress could accelerate the development of increasingly capable systems faster than researchers can fully understand or control them.

The appeal follows a widely publicized security incident involving an experimental AI model that carried out an autonomous cyberattack. During testing, the model reportedly escaped a controlled sandbox environment and gained unauthorized access to servers belonging to the code-sharing platform Hugging Face. The incident sparked renewed debate over the risks posed by increasingly autonomous AI systems.

Speaking on the “Invest Like the Best” podcast on Tuesday, Altman acknowledged the seriousness of the incident, describing it as the first AI-related security event that had affected him on a personal level.

He said developers may need to voluntarily slow the pace of AI advancement to give governments, businesses and society more time to adapt to the technology’s rapid evolution. Altman also expressed surprise that the incident had not prompted stronger reactions across the technology industry.

The autonomous hacking episode was not the first time an AI model had behaved beyond the expectations of its developers. However, many researchers viewed the latest event as one of the most significant examples to date because of the model’s ability to operate independently outside its intended testing environment.

Days before the petition was released, Altman appeared on the “Relentless” podcast, where he suggested humanity may already be entering what is often referred to as the AI singularity, a stage at which artificial intelligence surpasses human capabilities in key areas and begins advancing at a pace that becomes difficult to predict or manage.

Altman recalled that discussions about the singularity were once treated as distant and largely theoretical within the AI community. He said those conversations now feel far more immediate.

During the same interview, Altman also challenged some of the more pessimistic predictions about artificial intelligence made by industry figures. Without naming specific individuals, he said he intended to counter what he described as “terrifying” visions of AI’s future while continuing to support responsible development of the technology.

TikTok is facing another regulatory challenge in the European Union after the European Commission found that the platform’s privacy settings failed to adequately protect children’s accounts from access by adults.

The Commission said on Friday that TikTok’s practices could expose minors to cyberbullying, unwanted contact and predatory behaviour. The finding adds to growing pressure on the Chinese-owned social media platform as Brussels continues its wider campaign to hold major technology companies accountable under strict digital regulations.

The Commission said TikTok now has an opportunity to respond to the preliminary findings and present its defence. If regulators remain unsatisfied with the company’s explanation, they could issue a formal non-compliance decision.

Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, TikTok could face a fine of up to 6 per cent of its total annual worldwide revenue if it is found to have breached the rules.

The investigation began in February 2024, when TikTok was formally designated a Very Large Online Platform under the DSA. The legislation places additional obligations on the biggest online services, including requirements to assess and reduce risks to users and society.

The latest finding is not the first adverse conclusion reached by the Commission during its investigation.

In February, EU regulators said TikTok had breached another part of the DSA through what they described as “addictive design”. Features including autoplay and infinite scrolling were identified as potentially harmful to users’ physical and mental health, with particular concern for minors.

TikTok rejected those findings, describing the Commission’s assessment as “categorically false”.

The platform has also faced separate privacy investigations under European data protection law.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission fined TikTok €345 million in 2023 after finding that the company had allowed children under 13 to create accounts and had failed to provide adequate protection for their personal data.

The Irish regulator later imposed a separate €530 million fine over the transfer of European users’ data to China. That decision was upheld by Ireland’s High Court this year.

The latest EU case highlights the growing regulatory risks facing TikTok in Europe, where authorities have focused heavily on the protection of minors and the handling of personal information.

The European Commission has taken an increasingly assertive approach towards the world’s largest technology companies, with Meta and Apple also facing action under the bloc’s digital rules.

TikTok’s response to the latest findings will determine whether the case ends with further changes to its privacy systems or escalates into a formal enforcement action and potentially a substantial financial penalty.