What a 'pause' really means is restricting new entrants to the market to safeguard the position and profit of the current encumbants.
The current players won big by rolling out harmful AI without any safeguards, and being the only ones who could do it because they had the technical lead in AI.
Now, open weight models are getting really good and the technical advantage is evaporating, so they instead are seeking process and legislative controls to help them "pull up the ladder" and restrict any potential competition.