The recent proposition of decelerating AI research as a means to ensure safety and progress presents an understandable but untenable approach that will be detrimental to both objectives. Corporate or state actors will make advancements in the dark while simultaneously curtailing the public research community's ability to scrutinize the safety aspects of advanced AI systems thoroughly. Rather than impeding the momentum of public AI development, a more judicious and efficacious approach would be to foster a better-organized, transparent, safety-aware, and collaborative research environment. The establishment of transparent open-source AI safety labs tied to the international large-scale AI research facility as described above, which employ eligible AI safety experts, have corresponding publicly funded compute resources, and act according to regulations issued by democratic institutions, will cover the safety aspect without dampening progress. By embracing this cooperative framework, we can simultaneously ensure progress and the responsible development of AI technology, safeguarding the well-being of our society and the integrity of democratic values.