Cohere—Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez publicly accused rival AI labs of 'cartel' behavior on slowdown calls and proposed independent international AI oversight
In a published essay, Cohere co-founder and CEO Aidan Gomez criticized rival AI leaders (naming Anthropic's Dario Amodei) for calling for a coordinated industry slowdown, arguing that a mechanism which slows everyone down while preserving incumbents' commercial advantage does not make AI safer and risks entrenching dominant AI companies. Gomez instead called for an independent international framework for AI harms with genuinely independent testing bodies - contrasting this with 'handpicked' auditors he said risk regulatory capture - and for mandatory transparency when serious AI incidents occur.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Oversight | +toward | primary | +1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | +0.322 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (low ×0.5) × confidence (0.64)
Evidence (2 signals)
Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez renewed call for independent, government-led international AI safety oversight including China
On September 29, 2026, Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez said safety 'is not going to come from a few Silicon Valley players coordinating with each other under an exemption from antitrust law,' reiterating his call for independent testing and clear incident-reporting pathways, and said international coordination should include China alongside democracies.
Globe and Mail: Cohere CEO calls coordinated AI slowdown calls 'cartel' behaviour
The Globe and Mail reports on Aidan Gomez's essay criticizing rival AI labs' slowdown proposals as protecting incumbents, and his call for an independent international AI harms framework with genuinely independent testing.