Obama’s AI Alarm Could Hand China the Advantage | Victor Davis Hanson

Barack Obama has re-emerged to lead Democratic midterm efforts, and his chosen focus is artificial intelligence. The former president is pushing for global governance of AI, arguing that the technology is too dangerous to leave unregulated. Victor Davis Hanson sees this as a political maneuver, not a genuine policy concern. Hanson argues that Obama’s AI alarm is a calculated attempt to create a false issue on the eve of the midterm elections, one that can be used against Donald Trump and the tech industry while advancing a familiar leftist agenda: subordinating American sovereignty to international bodies.

The Pattern of International Governance

Hanson’s central argument is that the push for global AI governance follows a predictable and failed pattern. He lists examples: pollution led to the Paris Climate Accords, problems with Israel go to the UN, COVID goes to the World Health Organization. In each case, the left’s instinct is to find a global solution. Hanson’s objection is not theoretical but empirical. International organizations, he notes, are only as strong as their weakest members. Of the roughly 175 nations in the world, only 70 to 80 are democracies. That means bodies like the UN or WHO are populated by Russians, Iranians, North Koreans, and Cubans who will use them to subvert American and Israeli interests.