GPT-4 pause letter (2023)
The Future of Life Institute published an open letter signed by thousands, including Elon Musk, calling for a six-month pause on training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, citing risks to society and humanity.
No pause happened; OpenAI and rivals kept releasing models on their own schedules.
The letter established voluntary safety pressure as a failed lever, pushing governments toward binding review.
The pause was a plea. The GPT-5.6 held release is the first time a government actually stopped a frontier model's public launch.
