Another week, another artificial intelligence (AI) controversy. This time, the issue revolves around a call to halt the development of certain AI systems for at least six months while risks are properly assessed and safeguards against potential harms are designed and implemented. On its face, this open letter is exactly the kind of thing one might imagine AI ethicists would welcome with equally open arms.

But that’s not what has transpired. Instead, voices at the vanguard of the AI ethics movement have largely rejected this overture, not necessarily because of principled disagreement with the crux of the message (which some admittedly endorse), but rather because of its messengers. At the time of writing, big names in the technology world who often find themselves on the receiving end of heavy criticism from AI ethicists, such as Elon Musk, Gary Marcus, Grady Booch, Steve Wozniak, and Andrew Yang, have already signed onto the effort.

The open letter thus puts the elite AI ethics camp in bit of a bind. On the one hand, it actively promotes the sort of cautious deliberation and careful creation of regulatory and technological guardrails that so many have been clamoring for since the beginning of their careers. On the other hand, the call is being spearheaded by the very “tech bro” libertarian types that the AI ethics set finds noxious to their moral sensibilities and commitment to social justice. Quite the quandary, indeed.