AI staff coalition and pacing letter

Three developments on September 10 mark activity across AI safety organizing efforts. The Coalition for Concerned AI Staff launched after organizing since February 2026, working with employees at multiple AI labs to help them decide whether to leave their companies or use internal leverage to effect change. Miles Brundage wrote that 'AI company employees have a lot of common concerns / challenges / questions - good for them to have supporting infrastructure like this'. Policy analyst Dean Ball announced he signed a pacing letter calling for slowing frontier AI capabilities development, arguing AI systems are becoming smarter than the best humans in some domains and that human experts can no longer make robust assurances about their behavior. Ball called for ending what he described as the 'race era' of AI development and for governments to partner with the AI community on alignment, interpretability, security, and monitoring. Separately, PauseAI Global formally disendorsed the current leadership of PauseAI US, citing concerns about tactics including personal attacks on individuals' character. PauseAI Global and PauseAI US have always been technically distinct organizations. The author of the item reporting this partially disputes PauseAI Global's framing that such attacks are nonviolent, writing that criticizing the character of those advancing AI capabilities can be a valid position if one believes it contributes to existential risk.