OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki says no lab is ready to keep scaling AI at full speed

OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki has warned that the industry is unprepared for a continued surge in machine intelligence, arguing that no laboratory has solved alignment and monitoring well enough to keep scaling at maximum speed. In an essay titled An Alien Mind, published on September 6, 2026, he called for “extreme caution,” voluntary slowdowns until shared safety bars exist, and broader interventions so that “humans remain in control of the future.”