Pause

The pause approach suggests we temporarily halt development of strong AGI (or ASI) until we figure out how to make them provably safe. This would mean stopping work on capabilities — advancing AI power and autonomy — while focusing exclusively on safety research.

The logic is compelling: if we're racing toward building systems that could reshape Earth in ways incompatible with human survival, why not pause that race until we understand how to prevent catastrophe?

Why this could work:

• Addresses the root problem: Unlike other solutions that try to manage AGI after it exists, pausing prevents the dangerous competitive dynamics from emerging in the first place.
• Buys time for safety: Allows researchers to work on alignment, interpretability, and control mechanisms without the pressure of an ongoing capabilities race.
• Prevents proliferation: Stops the development of increasingly dangerous AI models that could be misused or lose control.
• Breaks competitive pressure: If everyone pauses together, no single actor gains advantage by cutting safety corners.

The fundamental challenge:

Pausing is almost impossible to enforce globally. It requires unprecedented coordination among:

• All major AI companies worldwide
• All countries with significant AI capabilities
• Academic institutions and researchers
• Open source developers and communities

Even if major players agree to pause, the incentive to defect is enormous. The first to break the pause could gain decisive advantage, making cooperation extremely fragile.

Additional problems:

• Verification difficulty: How do we monitor compliance with a pause? AI research can be conducted in secret.
• Definition challenges: What exactly counts as "capabilities research" versus "safety research"? The lines are often blurred.
• Economic pressure: Companies and countries face massive financial incentives to continue development.
• Open source proliferation: Even if major labs pause, open source AI development continues to advance.

Despite these challenges, a pause could actually work if somehow every AI developer everywhere actually stops working on capabilities and instead works to figure out how to make AI safe. This makes it one of the few approaches that could genuinely solve the Island Problem rather than just delay it.

The difficulty isn't technical — it's coordination. But if achieved, a pause could give humanity the time needed to solve AI safety before building systems we cannot control.