Obama Urges Democrats: AI Must Be 'Central Agenda' — SkimNews
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- Barack Obama told House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at a Thursday Democratic fundraising event that AI must be a 'central agenda' with a 'very clear plan,' warning the technology is 'moving very fast in private hands' and could become 'dangerous' without oversight.
- Obama argued AI could also accelerate drug development and cure diseases, and has positioned himself as a 'sounding board' who has spoken directly with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
- Jeffries said 'decisive action must be taken on artificial intelligence' and accused Republicans of having 'abdicated their responsibility to govern on behalf of the American people.'
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei outlined a 'pacing the frontier' approach on Saturday proposing independent safety evaluators with access to leading AI companies and 'common safety standards' between them.
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company would commit to 'having independent evaluators with employee-like access,' and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk appeared to respond positively to Amodei's plan on social media.
- President Trump told reporters at an Irish golf event on Sunday that 'whoever wins AI wins,' called the U.S. 'the most sophisticated country in the world,' and dismissed AI safety critics as 'negative forces that shouldn't be bringing it up.'
Why it matters: Obama's call reframes AI as a midterm campaign wedge, giving Democrats a contrast to the Trump administration's AI framework, which preempts state laws and shifts the child safety burden to parents. His direct lines to Amodei and Altman make the former president a quiet broker of the industry's voluntary safety commitments now taking shape, from Amodei's 'pacing the frontier' proposal to Altman's evaluator-access pledge.
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