Cohere CEO calls the slowdown pact a cartel

Cohere’s CEO has publicly described the reported Anthropic, OpenAI and Elon Musk agreement to slow the pace of AI development as cartel-like behaviour, according to the Globe and Mail’s report.

That matters because it pushes back on a simple safety narrative. Calls to slow AI progress are often presented as responsible caution. Cohere’s argument is that, depending on who is making the call and how it is enforced, slowing the field could also protect established players from competition. “Cartel” is a serious legal term, and this is the CEO’s characterisation, not a legal finding. Still, it highlights a real business question: who gets to set the pace of a market that is moving quickly?

For operators, the practical takeaway is not to pick a side in the public argument. It’s to avoid building your AI plans around the assumption that access, pricing or model capability will keep improving on a predictable path. A small group of major providers can influence all three. Keep your options open, understand where AI sits in your key workflows, and make sure you can switch tools when the commercial or technical picture changes. This is the kind of thing we build into an AI command centre, so leaders can track changes and act before they become a problem.