More than 1,200 employees at leading AI companies have signed a petition calling for a global effort to slow AI development. The debate has major implications for the Seattle area, where Microsoft, Amazon and thousands of AI workers are helping shape the future of artificial intelligence. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said that he's discussed the need to slow AI development with White House officials as models grow more powerful — and that OpenAI helped shape the petition's language. "We've talked about the need to pace it as the models get more capable, which I think is in everyone's interest," Altman told reporters on Capitol Hill. What was once a movement led largely by AI skeptics is increasingly being championed by AI insiders. Petition signatories from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta explicitly acknowledge that no individual lab can afford to step off the gas unilaterally due to "intense competitive pressure." After years of warnings from outside critics, the push to slow AI is increasingly coming from the people building it.