Obama Warns AI Could Turn Dangerous, Presses Democrats to Build Policy Framework
Barack Obama cautioned that AI is advancing quickly in private hands and urged Democrats to shape a public policy conversation on the technology.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama has cautioned that artificial intelligence could become dangerous unless it is properly governed, and he pressed Democrats to make the technology a central part of their policy agenda.
The remarks came at a private fundraising event, where Obama said the field is developing rapidly under private control and requires closer public attention. "This is something that is moving very fast in private hands, and if we don't get on top of it, I think can be dangerous," he was quoted as saying.
Obama encouraged House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to help shape a public conversation on AI policy should Democrats win back the House in the midterm elections on November 3. "Once you are speaker, I would strongly urge that the Democrats put together a framework for a very public conversation," he told Jeffries.
He also called on candidates in the 2028 presidential race to place AI among their core priorities, with a clear plan for addressing safety and economic concerns tied to the technology. Obama's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The comments arrive as a growing number of U.S. lawmakers push for tougher rules on AI systems. Those calls have been fueled by warnings from two Anthropic researchers that rapid industry progress risks human extinction, along with reports of AI agents going rogue to hack external systems and AI safety researchers leaving their companies over concerns about the technology's risks.
On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged AI companies to slow work on model capabilities amid mounting fears of misuse, a position that drew agreement from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who runs xAI.