Obama urges Democrats to put AI oversight at the center of their agenda

The New York Times published a partial transcript from Barack Obama’s office of Thursday remarks at a closed-door Manhattan fundraiser, where he urged Democrats to put AI oversight at the center of their agenda if they take the House.

A former president is now on the public record telling Democrats to manage AI now and build a public plan. The quotes are the news. A House majority and a finished bill are not.

The New York Times published a partial transcript, provided by Barack Obama’s office, of Thursday remarks at a closed-door Manhattan fundraiser for the House Democrats’ campaign arm. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries interviewed the former president. That Times dispatch — Evan Gorelick — is the filing event. These are private-event remarks now on the public record.

The Times quotes him: “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.” On the benefit side, the same 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.”

To Jeffries, as reported by the Times: “Once you are speaker, I would strongly urge that the Democrats put together a framework for a very public conversation.”

The Times reports Obama told 2028 presidential candidates to make AI one of their “central agendas” and to “have a very clear plan” for safety and economic concerns.

The Times also reports Obama offered himself as a “sounding board” to AI executives and has spoken with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. That is NYT reporting — not an on-the-record confirmation from those executives in this filing.

In a same-day statement, as reported by TechCrunch, Jeffries said the former president “is correct that decisive action must be taken on artificial intelligence,” and that Republicans “abdicated their responsibility…” This is Jeffries’s statement on the Thursday remarks. It is not a re-file of his Sunday ABC This Week appearance (jeffries-act-urgently-ai-safety).