Obama and Biden alumni launch center-left AI policy push

Former Obama and Biden officials are launching a public policy initiative to shape the Democratic response to artificial intelligence before party positions harden around the next election. The effort is meant to give center-left policymakers a sharper message on how to promote innovation without ignoring worker displacement, privacy, copyright and the growing power of a handful of dominant firms.

The push builds on a relationship that has already influenced White House AI policy. Barack Obama advised the White House over the past five months on its plan to address artificial intelligence, the first time Joe Biden had tapped his former boss to help shape a key policy initiative. Obama also helped draft the White House AI policy that Biden rolled out in early November 2023, after Biden signed Executive Order 14110 on Oct. 30, 2023, on the safe, secure and trustworthy development and use of AI.

That order became the administration’s central framework for a more coordinated federal approach to AI. Congress.gov’s CRS summary said the order advanced a coordinated approach to responsible AI development and use. The White House paired executive action with industry pledges, announcing voluntary commitments from leading AI companies in July 2023 and later expanding those commitments to more firms, including Adobe, Cohere, IBM, Nvidia, Palantir, Salesforce, Scale AI and Stability.

The new initiative is trying to claim the political ground between Big Tech-friendly innovation politics and labor- and safety-first regulation. Its architects are betting that Democrats can turn broad ideas like fairness, accountability and competition into concrete policy before AI rules settle in Congress, the states and federal agencies. That matters because AI is now touching media, education, the labor market and national security at the same time, making it harder for lawmakers to treat it as a narrow tech issue.

The field around AI policy is already crowded. The Economic Policy Institute has built a database of Biden administration actions on AI with Workshop, while Georgetown University’s Tech & Society Initiative and the Federation of American Scientists have launched fellowship programs for former federal officials focused on public-interest work. Policy shops including the Center for American Progress, Brookings and the Brennan Center for Justice are also active, showing how quickly AI has become a campaign issue, a workforce issue and a governing issue.