Obama sounds alarm on AI, urging Democrats to legislate safety controls

Former US President Barack Obama sounded the alarm once again on the risks of artificial intelligence (AI) during an interview with The New York Times on the 13th of this month. Obama pointed out that if effective regulatory frameworks are not established for the research, development, application, and proliferation of AI technology, this innovative tool—which should otherwise drive societal progress—could evolve into a "highly dangerous" double-edged sword. To this end, he urged the US Democratic Party to place AI governance on its policy agenda during the upcoming legislative cycle and formulate concrete response measures to prevent technological out-of-control scenarios from impacting democratic institutions and public safety.

In recent years, generative AI models such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion have proliferated globally at an astonishing pace. These models can not only automatically write articles and generate images, but also demonstrate considerable capabilities in professional fields such as coding and medical diagnosis. As the scale and computing power of these models increase, the realism and persuasiveness of AI-generated content have simultaneously grown, thereby raising concerns over information fabrication, deepfake videos, and automated cyberattacks. Scholars and industry insiders have widely warned that in the absence of transparency and traceability mechanisms, AI could become a tool for spreading misinformation, violating personal privacy, and exacerbating societal division; at the same time, the labor market faces pressure from automation replacing traditional jobs, posing unprecedented challenges to education and retraining systems.

Within the United States, AI governance has become a focal point of bipartisan politics. Although the Democratic Party remains relatively open on technology issues, it still lacks a unified stance on how to balance innovation and regulation; by contrast, some Republican lawmakers tend to favor market self-regulation and maintain reservations about government intervention. Recently, the Senate has convened numerous hearings, inviting tech giants and academic experts to explain the risks and opportunities of AI. Obama's call comes at a crucial moment for the Democrats' policy positioning ahead of the 2024 presidential and congressional elections. Incorporating AI governance into the legislative blueprint would help secure institutional advantages in future technological competition.

Internationally, AI governance has shown a trend toward diversification. The European Union officially passed the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) last year, setting strict compliance requirements for high-risk AI systems using a tiered risk management approach. Japan has promoted industry-government-academia collaborative safety testing mechanisms based on "AI Ethical Guidelines." Meanwhile, China has introduced the "Governance Principles for a New Generation of Artificial Intelligence" at the government level, emphasizing technological security and social responsibility. These initiatives indicate that major global economies are accelerating the construction of AI regulatory frameworks to prevent technological abuse and safeguard national competitiveness. If the United States continues to lack a unified federal-level policy, it risks losing its leading role in international standards setting and cross-border data governance, further impacting its bargaining power in technological innovation and digital trade.

Obama's warning is not only a reminder regarding the technology itself, but also a profound expression of concern for democratic institutions. If misused, AI could undermine information transparency, amplify the dissemination speed of false information, and consequently erode the foundation of public discourse. In the long run, comprehensive AI governance should include establishing verifiable model auditing mechanisms, strengthening data privacy protection, encouraging open-source and diverse R&D environments, and investing educational resources to enhance public AI literacy. If the Democratic Party can simultaneously advance these measures at both the legislative and executive levels, it will lay a more solid institutional defense line for the United States in the emerging technology era, while providing a referenceable model for global AI governance. (Source Fact: Central News Agency)