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hardwired pause
Definition of hardwired pause
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: a proposed international pause on training new frontier AI models that would be enforced partly through hardware policy, especially by stopping production of training-capable AI chips and replacing them over time with model-restricted, inference-only chips
- The treaty proposal used a hardwired pause so countries could continue running approved models without manufacturing hardware suited to train more powerful ones.
- Researchers examined whether supply-chain monitoring could make a hardwired pause mutually verifiable.
Two meanings, one word
In everyday English
Hardwired describes a rule or function built directly into physical circuitry so that it is difficult to change or bypass.
In AI
A proposed international pause on training new frontier AI models that would be enforced partly through hardware policy, especially by stopping production of…
Origin & history
A 2026 multidisciplinary report titled The Feasibility of a Hardwired Pause of Frontier AI Training introduced the phrase as a general type of internationally coordinated pause rather than one fixed implementation. The report's working group included researchers from institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford. UC Berkeley publicized the proposal in October 2026.
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Cite this entry
"Hardwired pause." AI Dictionary, Dadgogo, https://dadgogo.com/dictionary/hardwired-pause/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.