Obama urges Democrats to have a ‘clear plan’ for AI safeguards

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1:06That's framer.com slash fcdaily. Rules and restrictions may apply. This episode is brought to you by ODSC AI. Join the thousands at ODSC West 2026 this October and be alongside the other AI practitioners and teams who are staying ahead of the field, learning from the best and connecting with the community. Now, if you work in applied AI and data science, you have to be there. ODSUS 2026 is happening in San Francisco, October 27th through the 29th. But you don't have to be there in person if you can't make it. You can also join virtually. So there's virtually no excuses not to participate in this hands-on training.

1:40You won't want to miss out on the more than 300 sessions covering agentic AI for enterprise, personal AI and workflow automation, physical AI and robotics, gen AI, data engineering, and responsible AI. These are workshops and boot camps taught by experts from companies like Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and Hugging Face, just to name a few. Not only is this a great place to network with other data scientists, ML engineers, AI researchers, and technical leaders, I also think this is an awesome opportunity to focus on real-world applications and skills you can use at work. And I mean, you can learn about a wide range of topics.

2:14Again, ODSC West 2026 is happening October 27th through the 29th in San Francisco and virtually. Go to odsc.ai slash west and use promo code tcdaily for an additional 15 % off your pass to odsc.ai west 2026. That's odsc.ai slash west and use code tcdaily to get an extra 15 % off on the number one AI builders and training conference. Obama urges Democrats to have a clear plan for AI safeguards. I'm Imran Shaikh, your safeguard to the Daily Crunch for Tuesday featuring three big tech headlines and a little bit of startup business news starting right now. Oracle co-founder and executive chairman Larry Ellison has canceled a planned sale of his Oracle stock the company announced on Saturday.

3:01You see, Oracle had previously disclosed in a regulatory filing that Ellison planned to sell 50 million shares worth around$7.5 billion, according to Reuters. The company didn't offer a reason for the change in plans. No Oracle stock was sold under that plan, and he has no other plans to sell any of his Oracle stock, the company said. Oracle stock is currently down 22 % since the beginning of the year. The company has been spending heavily on data centers, and it recently became one of the major owners and security partners for TikTok's U.S. operations. Ellison has also used his wealth to back his son David's acquisition of Warner Brothers, which is currently being contested in court.

3:44While OpenAI is filed confidentially for an IPO, the company will not be going public this year, according to CEO Sam Altman. You see, Altman was interviewed recently by Fortune editor-in-chief Alison Chantel amidst the fallout from the OpenAI hugging face hack, as well as broader discussions about AI safety. Now, Chantel asked whether OpenAI still feels pressure to move really fast due to its IPO plans. We're not rushing into an IPO, Altman said, continuing, I actually think that given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public. Instead, he insisted that OpenAI will go public when we're ready, which is when the business is ready, when we feel ready from what the moment is like in society with this technology.

4:28When pressed on whether that means the IPO isn't happening in 2026, Altman replied, I would say not 2026, yeah. We've got a lot of stuff to do. The New York Times reported in June that although OpenAI had hired bankers and lawyers with the goal of going public in the third or fourth quarter of 2026, the company was leaning toward 2027 due to the volatility of tech stocks and its own financial challenges. Former President Barack Obama recently said that Democrats need to make artificial intelligence one of their central agendas and have a very clear path to address concerns around the technology's economic impact and safety, according to the New York Times.

5:09Former President Obama made these comments on Thursday at a Democratic fundraising event where he was interviewed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The New York Times says that Obama's office provided a partial transcript of the event at which Jeffries asked Obama how congressional Democrats should approach AI. In response, Obama said that once Democrats regain the House majority, they need to put together a framework for a very public conversation. This is something that is moving very fast in private hands. And if we don't get on top of it, I think can be dangerous, Obama added. Continuing, if we do get on top of it, I do think it's beneficial.

5:46I genuinely think it's going to accelerate, for example, drug development in ways that can help us cure diseases. In a statement, Jeffries said the former president is correct that decisive action must be taken on artificial intelligence. Jeffries also said that Republicans have abdicated their responsibility to govern on behalf of the American people. The New York Times also reports that Obama has offered himself as a sounding board to AI executives and has spoken to both Anthropic CEO Dario Amadei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Now, Obama's comments come amidst growing concern around AI safety, particularly after an AI researcher resigned from Anthropic and claimed the leading AI companies are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.

6:31Well, on Saturday, Amadeya outlined a broad approach to pacing the frontier, which would include giving independent safety evaluators access to leading AI companies and models, as well as developing common safety standards between companies. In social media posts, Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk seemed to respond positively to Amadeus' plan, with Altman saying that OpenAI would also commit to having independent evaluators with employee-like access. Current President Immortan Joe, I mean Donald Trump, meanwhile discussed AI safety concerns with reporters at an Irish golf event on Sunday. Bloomberg reports that Trump boasted that the United States is the most sophisticated country in the world, adding that he wants to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins.

7:17Earlier this year, the Trump administration released a legislative framework for AI that would preempt state laws and shift the child safety burden to parents. And we can put guardrails, Trump said, continuing, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing it up. And now to the latest in startup business news all in about one minute with our friend producer Dennis. Imran, thank you. And as AI rages on, new startups are creating tools for people to create music using generative AI prompts in the style of any artist they want.

7:52A vinyl bar in Shibuya, a startup that sounds more like an indie band name, is focused on releasing a series of small apps that let you play around with sounds and vocals. The company has raised a$5.5 million dollar pre-seed round. And the common theme between all of these apps or websites is interacting with different elements to create music or modify sound. For instance, Speed Surfer is a Chrome extension that changes the speed and filter of sound playing in your browser window. And folks, that's your Daily Crunch. Today's stories were reported by Anthony Haas, Sarah Perez, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.

8:30We'll see you here tomorrow, same tech time, same crunch channel, and until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.

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