Barack Obama is urging Democrats to make artificial intelligence a major political agenda, including in the 2028 presidential race, warning that increasingly powerful technology is developing rapidly in private hands.
Obama made the remarks at a private Democratic fundraising event, according to a partial transcript reported by the New York Times and subsequently Reuters.
He urged House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to develop a public-policy framework for AI if Democrats regain control of the House in November’s midterm elections.
Obama also wants candidates seeking the presidency in 2028 to explain how they would address AI safety and its economic consequences.
AI ENTERS ELECTORAL POLITICS
The intervention comes as leading AI executives are themselves questioning the pace of frontier development.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has argued that development of frontier capabilities should be slowed.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly agreed that pacing the frontier may be necessary.
Now Obama is pushing AI governance into the Democratic political agenda ahead of the midterms and the next presidential election.
The companies building frontier AI currently make many of the decisions about how quickly capabilities advance and what safeguards accompany them.
If private companies build the most powerful technology of the next decade, who ultimately gets to decide the rules?
Sources
Reuters: Obama urges Democrats to tackle AI governance
Join the Dissenting Citizen Newsletter
Independent news and commentary delivered directly to your inbox.
