Former President Barack Obama has urged Democrats to prioritize artificial intelligence as a key issue, calling for a well-defined strategy to tackle the technology's effects on the economy and safety, according to The New York Times. He shared these thoughts on Thursday during a Democratic fundraising event, where he was interviewed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. A partial transcript from the event, provided by Obama's office, shows Jeffries asking how congressional Democrats should handle AI. Obama responded that after Democrats win back the House majority, they must "put together a framework for a very public conversation."

"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. "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 stated that the former president "is correct that decisive action must be taken on artificial intelligence." He also remarked that "Republicans have abdicated their responsibility to govern on behalf of the American people."

The NYT further notes that Obama has positioned himself as a "sounding board" for AI leaders, having spoken with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. His remarks come as concerns about AI safety grow, especially following an AI researcher's resignation from Anthropic, who alleged that top AI firms are "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives."

On Saturday, Amodei described a comprehensive strategy for "pacing the frontier," which involves granting independent safety evaluators access to major AI companies and their models, and establishing "common safety standards" across the industry. In social media responses, Altman and SpaceX CEO Musk appeared to endorse Amodei's proposal, with Altman noting that OpenAI would also pledge to "having independent evaluators with employee-like access."

President Donald Trump, in the meantime, talked about AI safety issues with reporters at an Irish golf event on Sunday. Bloomberg reported that Trump claimed the United States is "the most sophisticated country in the world," and added that he wants "to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins." (Earlier in the year, the Trump administration introduced a legislative framework for AI that would override state laws and transfer the child safety responsibility to parents.)

"And we can put guardrails," Trump said. "We can do this and that. But I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing it up."