# The pause letter (2023): SI History

> An open letter calls for a six month pause on training systems more powerful than GPT-4. From the RSI Encyclopedia, with every source linked.

Source: https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/the-pause-letter-2023/
Updated: 2026-11-08

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RSI Encyclopedia · Event · Mar 2023

# The pause letter (2023)

An open letter calls for a six month pause on training systems more powerful than GPT-4.

Date
:   Mar 2023

Type
:   Milestone

Status
:   Happened

Era
:   2023

## What happened

An open letter calls for a six month pause on training systems more powerful than GPT-4.

## Why it matters

No lab paused, but the letter gathered tens of thousands of signatures and pushed the question of slowing down frontier development into newspapers, parliaments and boardrooms.

## Source

1. [Future of Life Institute](https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/)

## On the timeline

This event is one of 20 milestones on the [RSI timeline](https://enterrsi.si/timeline/), from 1950 to SI building SI.

The event

Date
:   March 22, 2023

Type
:   Timeline milestone

Related terms

[Pause commitment **Term**](https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/pause-commitment/)[Frontier model **Term**](https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/frontier-model/)

Cite this entry

"The pause letter (2023)." The RSI Encyclopedia, enterrsi.si, November 8, 2026. https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/the-pause-letter-2023/

Free to cite under CC BY 4.0 with a link to enterrsi.si.

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