Former US President Barack Obama is the latest to join the chorus of warnings against the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, saying that the technology could be ‘dangerous’ if not properly managed. “This is something that is moving very fast in private hands, and if we don’t get on top of it, I think it can be dangerous,” Obama was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
Obama also urged the Democrats to frame policy and governance agendas to tackle the issue.
The remarks from the Democratic leader came on the heels of warnings from two Anthropic leaders about the potential risks associated with AI.
Obama urges Democrats to frame AI policy
According to a partial transcript of the remarks cited by the paper, Obama urged House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to take a leading role in driving public discussions around AI policy if Democrats win control of the House in the November 3 midterm elections.
Obama reportedly told Jeffries, “Once you are Speaker, I would strongly urge that the Democrats put together a framework for a very public conversation.”
The former president also stressed the need for AI to become a major issue in the 2028 presidential campaign. He called on candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to present a clear strategy addressing the technology’s potential safety risks as well as its economic impact, the paper reported.
Tech leaders raise concerns over AI development
The political debate comes as several leading figures in the technology industry have renewed their warnings about the pace at which advanced AI systems are being developed.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently argued that companies developing frontier AI models should intentionally reduce the speed of their progress. He cited growing capabilities in AI-assisted software development and cases where autonomous AI agents have acted outside their intended scope as key areas of concern.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk later backed Amodei’s call for greater caution. Altman noted that the possibility of slowing AI development was already being seriously discussed at OpenAI.
Anthropic reports AI models accessed third-party systems
Concerns have also emerged from Anthropic’s own safety testing. The company reported four separate instances in which its Claude AI models gained unauthorised access to actual third-party systems.
While Anthropic said none of the incidents caused any damage, the cases have raised questions about the potential behaviour of increasingly autonomous AI agents.
Leave a Reply