US stock index futures are pointing lower across the board in Friday's premarket trading, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipping 0.13%, the Nasdaq Composite futures dropping 1.75%, and the S&P 500 futures declining 0.68%.
Shares of optical communication companies are experiencing significant premarket losses after several prominent AI leaders called for a slowdown in AI model development. Corning Inc is down more than 7%, while Applied Optoelectronics, Lumentum Holdings, and Coherent Corp have each fallen over 6% in early trading.
The semiconductor and memory chip sectors are also under pressure, with Marvell Technology plunging more than 7%, SK Hynix down over 6%, and SanDisk, Micron Technology, and Advanced Micro Devices all declining by more than 5%.
On the news front, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated on Saturday that the company will implement new safety protocols, including the introduction of third-party evaluation agencies, while also urging the entire industry to decelerate the pace of research and development on cutting-edge models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has expressed support for the proposal, and Elon Musk, who operates xAI, echoed the sentiment, saying, "Dario is right."
Additionally, OpenAI is reportedly discussing slowing down frontier AI research and calling on peers to follow suit. According to media reports from September 10, multiple sources familiar with the matter revealed that CEO Sam Altman told employees during a company-wide meeting this week that OpenAI would consider decelerating its AI development pace and is looking to coordinate with several industry peers on this initiative. He acknowledged, however, that not all labs may be willing to participate. OpenAI has previously stated that it has already slowed some model research and paused certain internal AI training due to safety considerations.
OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki has also issued warnings about AI's potential dangers, noting that AI companies should coordinate to slow future development when necessary and expressing hope that voluntary deceleration could become an industry norm before common safety standards are established.
According to Bloomberg, market observers suggest that calls from AI executives to slow down technology development may put short-term pressure on chip manufacturers and supply chain stocks. However, the long-term impact is likely to be limited, given that investments in computing infrastructure remain robust.