Barack Obama: ‘I’m Not a Doomer’

Former President Barack Obama said in a Monday post on X that he is "not an AI accelerationist" and "not a doomer," calling the frontier AI labs' agreement to slow development a "good and necessary first step" and arguing that decisions about AI's impact on medicine, energy, education, jobs, and inequality should not be left to industry alone. SV Angel, the venture capital firm founded by Democratic donor Ron Conway, announced Monday that former White House press secretary Jay Carney will lead Project Blueprint, an effort to bring AI leaders and Democratic lawmakers together on AI policy. Former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also called for government action, with Harris urging Congress to pass new laws and create a "federal entity" for oversight and independent testing, following Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon's resignation last week over what he called companies "gambling with our lives.

Days after researchers at leading AI labs warned that the unchecked development of increasingly powerful AI could pose an existential risk, former President Barack Obama is weighing in. In a statement posted https://x.com/BarackObama/status/2099642023922036982 Monday on X, Obama wrote that he was encouraged to see leaders at the major frontier AI labs agree on the need to slow the pace of development, calling it a “good and necessary first step.” But when it comes to the technology itself, Obama is trying to have it both ways. “I’m 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,” Obama wrote. I was encouraged this week to see the leaders of the frontier labs agree on the need for them to slow down the pace of AI development. Given the stakes, it’s a good and necessary first step. But I’m even more encouraged by the growing recognition that how this powerful new… — Barack Obama @BarackObama September 14, 2026 https://x.com/BarackObama/status/2099642023922036982?ref src=twsrc%5Etfw He went on to say that whether AI leads to breakthroughs in medicine, energy, and education or instead causes economic disruptions, greater inequality, and catastrophe will depend on choices being made now. Obama added, that those choices shouldn’t be left to the industry to decide on its own. He also highlighted a new initiative being led by his former White House press secretary, Jay Carney. SV Angel, the venture capital firm founded by Democratic donor Ron Conway, announced Monday that Carney would lead Project Blueprint, an effort to bring AI leaders and Democratic lawmakers together to work on AI policy. “We need government – and specifically our leaders in Washington – to get proactive in coming up with concrete proposals, laws and regulations that deal with serious safety concerns, anticipate AI’s impact on jobs and our kids, and make sure that AI’s benefits are widely spread,” Obama wrote. Other prominent Democrats have also called for more government action while trying to avoid sounding alarmist. “Pacing AI development does not mean giving up on this technology’s potential to produce life-saving benefits in fields like medicine — some of which we are already seeing. Rather, it is about setting up sensible guardrails so that AI does not completely escape human control and endanger our safety and collective future,” former Vice President Kamala Harris wrote in her own post https://x.com/KamalaHarris/status/2099598534831911394?s=20 Monday. She also called on Congress to pass new laws and establish a “federal entity” to provide oversight and independent testing on AI. The frontier of artificial intelligence is advancing at an alarming speed. Over the weekend, industry leaders voiced support for an idea that the American people and many AI researchers in their own labs have been calling for: We must responsibly slow the pace of frontier AI… — Kamala Harris @KamalaHarris September 14, 2026 https://x.com/KamalaHarris/status/2099598534831911394?ref src=twsrc%5Etfw Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also called for government safeguards during an appearance https://x.com/PeteButtigieg/status/2099276148035252521 on Meet the Press on Sunday. The new calls for more regulation follow a recent wave of warnings from researchers inside the country’s leading AI companies. Jacob Coxon, an Anthropic researcher who previously worked at OpenAI, resigned last week and wrote on X that AI companies are “gambling with our lives.” “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt,” wrote Coxon https://x.com/hilbertspaess/status/2097476196791709843 . No other human activity poses this level of danger.” Since then, many other researchers inside and outside of frontier AI companies have echoed those fears. Even Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for the industry to slow the pace https://gizmodo.com/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-calls-for-pause-in-ai-development-sort-of-2000810962 at which it develops more capable frontier models. His rivals OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI CEO Elon Musk publicly backed his proposal. Some politicians are calling for even stronger action. Sen. Bernie Sanders has repeatedly called for a pause on AI development and is appearing Tuesday with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon https://gizmodo.com/bernie-sanders-to-join-forces-with-steve-bannon-and-anthropic-researcher-at-pro-human-conference-2000811283 at the Future of Life Institute’s Pro-Human Assembly to push for stronger AI safeguards. President Donald Trump, in contrast, has largely dismissed https://gizmodo.com/trump-shrugs-off-warnings-that-ai-could-cause-human-extinction-2000810553 the warnings. “No, I don’t have any,” Trump told reporters Thursday when asked whether he had concerns about AI. “I have concerns that if we don’t win AI, we’re going to be put in a very bad position.” On Monday, Trump went further, describing fears about AI as a hoax in several posts on Truth Social. “The AI Hoax being perpetrated by the Radical Left Dumocrats is reminiscent of their Global Warming Scam of not so long ago, where everyone was going to die from extreme heat. What happened? MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN President DJT,” Trump wrote in one post https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117272091671686232 . He repeated that message during a phone call with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang https://gizmodo.com/ai-ceos-predictably-suck-up-to-trump-amid-ai-pause-debate-2000811593 , who was onstage at the All-In Podcast’s All-In Summit. Huang put the president on speakerphone, and Trump again dismissed fears about AI as a hoax. With different political factions now making their positions clear on the need for AI oversight, it remains to be seen which message will resonate more with voters ahead of November’s midterms.