Former President Barack Obama said he is “encouraged” by Artificial Intelligence companies calling for a slowdown, but warned that the technology's future benefits or harms hinge on decisions being made “right now” that shouldn’t just be left to tech leaders.
“Whether this technology results in amazing breakthroughs in medicine, energy and education or unleashes huge economic disruptions, greater inequality, and potential catastrophe will depend on the choices that we make right now – choices that should be made not just by the companies involved, but by all of us,” Obama said in a Sept. 14 social media post.
Obama weighed in after the AI debate exploded over the weekend following Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s publication of an essay on his website
raising concerns about the technology’s rapid advancement and lack of guardrails.
Amodei’s call to “slow the pace” of AI development to allow “risk prevention to keep up” was quickly endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI founder Elon Musk, two other AI leaders.
Amodei touted the potential benefits of AI in his essay, but said he has become increasingly concerned in recent months that “more prudence” is required to address the technology's risks, including cyberattacks, bioterrorism and economic disruptions.
Former AI researcher Jacob Coxon also grabbed public attention in recent days with a stark warning that the technology could "kill us all by the end of the decade."
Obama said slowing the pace of AI development is a “good and necessary first step.”
“But I’m even more encouraged by the growing recognition that how this powerful new technology develops should be at the center of our public debate,” the former president added.
A two-term Democratic president who remains a hugely influential figure in his party, Obama’s comments could help steer the debate as elected leaders across the political spectrum come under increasing public pressure on AI, including grappling with backlash to the sprawling data centers used to power the technology.
The issue has increasingly become central to the midterm election. Obama recently urged Democrats to prioritize AI oversight during Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser.
Obama spoke out publicly on the same day President Donald Trump dismissed the push for an AI slowdown, saying that “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.”
Trump called nightmare AI scenarios a Democrat “hoax” in a series of Sept. 14 social media posts, comparing the idea that AI could "destroy the World" to concerns about climate change. The president has been an ardent booster of an unfettered approach to rapid AI development, arguing the United States must win the AI race with China.
Obama, meanwhile, wrote that he is not an “AI accelerationist who believes it will lead to some techno-utopia, and I’m not a doomer who thinks it will inevitably lead to humanity’s destruction.”
“I’ve been watching the progress on AI for over a decade now, and one thing that’s clear to me is that the potential impact of this technology is not overhyped. It’s also moving at lightning speed – and even faster than those who are engineering it can keep up with,” Obama added.
Some Democrats lawmakers are urging Congress to act in response to AI leaders' concerns, pushing for regulations on the industry. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Vice President JD Vance have joined Trump in voicing skepticism, though.
"I have to say, just personally, I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them," Vance said Sept. 14. "It just feels a little bit to me like a little bit of a Trojan Horse. So I think we have to be careful about this."
Contributing: Joey Garrison
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Obama says AI's future shouldn't just be left to tech leaders
