Democrats embraced AI’s growth before Trump came along — now they want to slow it down

Some of the Democratic Party’s most prominent voices are pushing for tighter limits on artificial intelligence, including former President Barack Obama, who has joined calls for a slower pace of frontier AI development after years of Democratic leaders touting the technology’s economic and strategic potential.

"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 said in a statement Monday night.

Obama’s latest comments put greater emphasis on slowing frontier AI development than his White House did in 2016, when his administration highlighted the technology’s economic potential while also warning about disruption and calling for policy responses.

Democrats have long paired enthusiasm for AI’s economic and strategic potential with warnings about its risks, but some of the party’s most prominent voices are now going further — calling for a slower pace of frontier AI development and tougher limits on how the technology is built and deployed.

Attorney General Todd Blanche argued Tuesday that Democrats’ renewed focus on the potential risks of artificial intelligence should not be treated as "breaking news," suggesting the timing, months before the midterm elections, is politically significant.

AI EXTINCTION WARNINGS DOMINATE HEADLINES AFTER EX-ANTHROPIC EMPLOYEE'S VIRAL POST "Every Democrat senator suddenly races to a microphone to talk about AI after being eerily silent for months and months, a month.

So to talk about the timing of this as being nothing but an effort to influence the midterms, I shouldn't have to say that out loud, of course, that what it is what it is," said Blanche.

The comments came as President Donald Trump has made rapid AI development and the data centers needed to power it a priority, while the administration promotes the technology’s potential economic benefits and faces growing political scrutiny over the cost and impact of expanding data-center infrastructure.

Obama issued a statement Monday on X, writing that AI is "moving at lightning speed – and even faster than those who are engineering it can keep up with." "Given what we know about technology, we can’t stuff AI back in a box.

But we can collectively determine how it's developed and how it’s used, rather than sitting back and letting AI and its fallout happen to us," he wrote.

He called for regulation, saying, choices to slow down should not be left up to the tech companies.

Any "potential catastrophe will depend on the choices that we make right now," said Obama.