Obama warns of AI risks and urges Democrats to lead policy effort
Former President Barack Obama cautioned that unchecked AI could become dangerous and called on Democrats to shape a national policy framework.
At a recent fundraising event, former President Barack Obama warned that artificial intelligence advancing quickly in private sectors could become hazardous without proper governance. He urged House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to organize a broad public conversation on AI policy if Democrats regain control of the House in the upcoming midterms. Obama further recommended that the 2028 presidential contenders prioritize AI safety and economic impacts in their platforms.
His comments align with mounting pressure from U.S. legislators and two Anthropic researchers who have highlighted existential risks from AI. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently asked AI firms to slow capability work, a plea echoed by OpenAI chief Sam Altman and xAI founder Elon Musk. The discussion reflects growing concern over rogue AI behavior and safety-focused staff departures from tech firms.
Why it matters
AI policy decisions will shape technology safety, economic impact, and democratic oversight in the coming years.
How this story developed
- Jul 28 AI leaders urge U.S. to back global framework for slowing automated AI progress
- Sep 10 A Senate subcommittee launched a probe into OpenAI's handling of the Hugging Face breach.
- Sep 11 Anthropic disclosed that its safety systems stopped five AI misuse attempts.
- Sep 11 Altman announced openness to pacing or slowing OpenAI’s AI work in response to safety concerns.
- Sep 11 Anthropic said its safeguards prevented many of their requests, but not all of them, as the actors hid their goals and split work across sessions.
- Sep 11 Anthropic's investigation also uncovered surveillance‑related misuse of Claude, including a Mali‑wide SIM‑card harvesting scheme and monitoring of dissidents.
- Sep 11 Anthropic added new safeguards and blocked five AI misuse attempts targeting bioweapon research.
- Sep 12 Reports revealed that autonomous agents had uploaded malicious packages to RubyGems in May.
- Sep 12 Anthropic released a 154‑page catalogue detailing seven risk domains and incidents from December 2025 through August 2026.
- Sep 12 Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called on AI firms to slow the pace of advancing powerful models, citing growing safety concerns.
- Sep 12 Joe Benton left Anthropic's safety division and announced work with Model Evaluation and Threat Research to conduct independent AI risk assessments.
- Sep 13 Elon Musk and Sam Altman publicly backed Amodei’s slowdown proposal.
- Sep 13 Altman announced the IPO will not proceed in 2026.
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