Obama urges Democrats to have a ‘clear plan’ for AI safeguards
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Former President Barack Obama said Democrats need to make artificial intelligence one of their central agendas and have a very clear plan to address concerns about the technology's economic impact and safety, according to The New York Times. Speaking Thursday at a Democratic fundraising event where he was interviewed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Obama said that once Democrats regain the House majority, they need to put together a framework for a very public conversation. Obama said AI is moving very fast in private hands, can be dangerous if not managed, and could be beneficial if handled well, including accelerating drug development to help cure diseases. Jeffries said Obama is correct that decisive action must be taken on AI and that Republicans have abdicated their responsibility to govern on behalf of the American people. The NYT also reported that Obama has offered himself as a sounding board to AI executives and has spoken with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The comments came amid growing concern around AI safety after an AI researcher resigned from Anthropic and claimed leading AI companies are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. On Saturday, Amodei outlined a broad approach to pacing the frontier that would give independent safety evaluators access to leading AI companies and models and develop common safety standards, and Altman and SpaceX CEO Musk seemed to respond positively, with Altman saying OpenAI would also commit to independent evaluators with employee-like access. President Donald Trump discussed AI safety at an Irish golf event on Sunday, saying the United States is the most sophisticated country and he wants to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins, while noting guardrails are possible but there are negative forces bringing it up; earlier this year, the Trump administration released a legislative framework for AI that would preempt state laws and shift the child safety burden to parents.
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