Brockman: an AI pause should hit the frontier — not hobby projects

OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman said on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast that any slowdown in AI development should be limited to companies building the most powerful frontier models on massive supercomputers — and that people should still be able to keep making open-source models and hobby side projects.

Same-day clarification from OpenAI’s president that “pace the frontier” talk is aimed at giant training runs, not everyday hobbyist or open-source work. Readers get the scope of the slowdown debate in plain English, separate from Altman’s Monday definition and from Trump’s Truth Social reply.

Bloomberg’s Mark Bergen reported Monday 14 Sep 2026 that OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman, speaking on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast, said any slowdown in AI development should be limited to companies like OpenAI building the most powerful models. Odd Lots is Bloomberg’s markets-and-tech podcast. That Bloomberg piece is the filing event. This is independent interview reporting — Tier B, not an OpenAI newsroom primary. It is not a pause already in force, not a shutdown of training, not a signed industry pact, and not a law.

Bloomberg’s takeaway: Brockman argued any slowdown should be limited to companies like OpenAI building the most powerful models. Frontier, as used here, means the cutting-edge biggest models — the leading edge, not a chatbot you already use.

Quoted, as Bloomberg reports Brockman: “A lot of people have this reaction of saying, ‘Well, am I going to be able to keep making my open source model? Am I going to be able to keep doing my hobby aside project?’ And the answer should be absolutely yes.” Open source, in plain English, is software anyone can inspect and change. A hobby side project is a personal or weekend build, not a giant lab run.

Quoted, as Bloomberg reports him next: “When we’re talking about pacing, we’re really talking about this frontier. We’re talking about these massive supercomputers that are hundreds of billions of dollars worth of capital expenditure.” Capital expenditure, or CapEx, is the big money spent on computers and buildings — here, the giant training machines. This is a scope claim about where a slowdown would land, not a budget cut this desk can name.