On Tuesday, 1,134 employees of the leading AI companies signed a letter asking the US government to help build one. So did OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki, Meta chief scientist Shengjia Zhao, and Google’s head of AI safety, Anca Dragan. The letter does not ask anyone to pause or slow AI now, NBC News noted. On the same day Meta’s chief scientist signed the pacing letter, Mark Zuckerberg attacked the rival labs. Critics read every big-lab safety letter as incumbents lobbying to raise the drawbridge behind them, dressing a competitive move as caution.