Maybe I am too cynical, but this just sounds like a plea for the government to step in and save them from their investors.
"AI revenues are growing fast, but not fast enough -- The returns on trillions of dollars of spending are deeply uncertain"
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/07/28/a...
As OP states: "each company—and country—is under intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slow that acceleration."
Let's not overwrite human civilization for the sake of the shareholders.
Signed,
AI researchers and engineers.
The fun part is that probably happens quite a way before getting anywhere near to AGI, and it is almost plausible that for many of them that is where they are.