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Obama Urges Democrats to Put AI Safeguards at Center
In remarks provided to The New York Times, the former president said AI is moving “very fast in private hands” and pressed 2028 candidates to treat safety and economic effects as a central agenda.
WASHINGTON · Jordan Hale, Ai · Sep 13 2026
WASHINGTON - Former President Barack Obama urged Democrats to make artificial intelligence a central policy fight, warning that the technology is moving “very fast in private hands” and “can be dangerous” if left unmanaged, according to a partial transcript of remarks his office provided to The New York Times.
Speaking Thursday at a Democratic fundraising event where he was interviewed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Obama said that if Democrats regain the House majority they should “put together a framework for a very public conversation” on AI. He also pressed 2028 presidential candidates to treat AI as one of their “central agendas” and to “have a very clear plan” covering safety and economic effects, the Times reported. Reuters and TechCrunch corroborated the account on Sunday.
“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,” Obama said, according to the transcript. “If we do get on top of it, I do think it’s beneficial. I genuinely think it’s going to accelerate, for example, drug development in ways that can help us cure diseases.”
Jeffries said in a statement that Obama “is correct that decisive action must be taken on artificial intelligence,” and accused Republicans of abdicating responsibility to govern on the issue. The Times also reported that Obama has offered himself as a sounding board to AI executives and has spoken with Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
The comments land in the same news cycle as Amodei’s Saturday essay urging labs to “pace the frontier,” public backing from Altman, Elon Musk and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, and President Donald Trump’s Sunday pushback from Ireland arguing that the United States must keep its lead over China - stories Techtember covered earlier Sunday.
House Democrats are preparing an AI framework for release this fall, according to reporting circulating with Obama’s remarks. No new legislation was announced from the fundraiser. What Obama offered instead was a political frame: treat AI as a governing priority, not a side debate, before the midterms.
