I was thinking about how AI CEOs pushing for an AI slowdown is making people oppose it and say it's all a marketing scheme. Which makes me think that cigarette companies could have just said something like "cigarettes are dangerous and need to be banned," and suddenly everyone would support cigarettes. When a whistleblower says something and then the CEO agrees, it makes the whistleblower look less cool, kind of like how teenage slang becomes less cool when adults start using it.
If AI companies want AI slowed down, I think a better strategy would be for the CEOs to say, "We can't slow down AI. That would hurt shareholder profits." Then everyone would be demanding the industry be regulated more harshly.