Obama Agrees With The CEOs: Now is the time for the AI Slowdown

OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and SpaceX’s Elon Musk have urged a voluntary slowdown in AI development, and former U.S. President Barack Obama has now joined the chorus. Speaking at Colgate University during a live interview, Obama said “voluntary restraint” is “good,” but warned that company self-regulation can’t be a long-term solution. He argued government must regulate, rejecting the idea that markets can handle risks “deeply” affecting health and safety, citing decades of experience. Obama also noted President Trump has dismissed AI regulation calls as “hoax,” while Vice President JD Vance questioned firms “begging” for oversight. Mark Zuckerberg recently called for safe training pace set by labs.