According to the New York Times, former President Barack Obama recently said that Democrats need to make artificial intelligence one of their “central issues” and have a “very clear plan” to address concerns about the economic impact and safety of artificial intelligence technologies.
President Obama made these comments Thursday at a Democratic fundraiser where he was interviewed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The NYT reported that President Obama’s office provided a partial transcript of the event, in which Jeffries asked Obama how Congressional Democrats should approach AI.
President Obama responded by saying that once Democrats regain control of the House, they need to “put together a framework for a very public dialogue.”
“This is something that is happening very quickly in private hands, and I think it could be dangerous if we don’t get on board with it,” Obama added. “If we can take advantage of it, I think it will be beneficial. For example, I really think it will accelerate the development of drugs in a way that helps treat diseases.”
Jeffries said in a statement that the former president is “right that we must take decisive action against artificial intelligence.” Jeffries also said that “the Republican Party has abdicated its responsibility to govern on behalf of the American people.”
The NYT also reported that President Obama has offered himself as a “consultant” to AI executives and has spoken with both Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. His comments come amid growing concerns about the safety of AI, especially after one AI researcher resigned from Anthropic and claimed that major AI companies were “putting our lives on the line in a straight race to self-improving superintelligence.”
Mr. Amodei on Saturday outlined a broad approach to “setting the pace on the frontier.” This includes giving independent safety assessors access to leading AI companies and models and developing “common safety standards” between companies. In social media posts, Altman and SpaceX CEO Musk appeared to respond positively to Amodei’s plan, with Altman saying that OpenAI would also work to “have independent evaluators with the same access rights as employees.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump spoke to reporters at a golf event in Ireland on Sunday about concerns about the safety of AI. According to a report by Bloomberg, President Trump boasted that the United States is “the most sophisticated country in the world,” adding, “Whoever wins against AI wins, and we want to keep it that way.” (Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced an AI legal framework that would override state laws and shift the burden of child safety onto parents.)
“We can put up guardrails,” President Trump said. “We can do this and that. But I think there are a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be brought up.”
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