Palo Alto CEO says slowing down AI is ‘unrealistic’, extinction threat ‘extremely small’

watch now

The CEO of Palo Alto Networks has entered the debate around the threat AI poses to humanity, telling CNBC that it's "unrealistic" to slow down the technology as different companies will do different things.

"I think not everybody is going to pace themselves," Nikesh Arora told CNBC's "The Tech Download" podcast, recorded on Tuesday.

Some of the industry's biggest names take opposing views since an Anthropic researcher claimed that there is a 10% chance that AI could "kill all humans," after another researcher said they were quitting because the company, alongside OpenAI, was not acting responsibly.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei penned an essay days later, saying the AI industry "must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Google DeepMind Chair Demis Hassabis voiced support.

Arora initially posted on X that he thought the call for a slowdown was a "NINJA MOVE," an action that could gain someone a stealthy advantage. He told CNBC that he posted this because he thought these AI firms were trying to "get the sympathy of the regulators" and lawmakers and get a "free pass" on liability.

But the CEO said he now thought the so-called "pacing" of AI development "is unrealistic."

"I think more than likely that some people will jump the gun, and you'll have still people developing at the frontier, which means we shouldn't try and stop the frontiers because they're the most responsible people," Arora said.

"So, from that perspective, the idea is don't release your product if you don't believe it's going to be safe, or you're comfortable putting it out there," he said, adding that it's also unclear how companies would create a way to test the pace of AI development.

Nikesh Arora, Chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025.

Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters