Obama says Democrats should have a ‘very clear plan’ on AI policy

Former President Barack Obama urged Democrats to prioritize developing a plan around artificial intelligence, saying that’s what he would be doing if he were running for president in 2028.

In remarks at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser Thursday, Obama said that while he was neither an “accelerationist” nor a “doomer,” the AI bell is not one that could be unrung, and that Democrats ought to flesh out an agenda on the topic.

“If I were running for president next year, this would be one of my central agendas, and I would have a very clear plan, and I would talk about this, and I would say, ‘Here’s our plan for safety, here’s our plan for making sure our kids are not corrupted by this.’ … I would be thinking about the economic impacts in very concrete ways and understanding what does it mean if there’s going to be job displacement,” Obama said in his remarks, provided to NBC News by the former president’s office.

Obama made the comments in a discussion with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. Obama told Jeffries to convene a “public conversation.”

“Once you are speaker, I would strongly urge that the Democrats put together…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business