Obama at Colgate: AI ‘not overhyped’, regulate fast

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Key facts

• Venue and date: Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, Friday Sept 18, 2026 (C-SPAN, CNN and Forbes descriptions say ‘Friday’; WWNY/Gray News report of Sept 21)
• ‘I do not believe that this technology is overhyped. The commercial benefits of it may be overhyped. The evaluations of AI companies may be overhyped. The technology itself is not overhyped.’ (C-SPAN)
• ‘I do not want to exaggerate that particular risk, but I will say there is a non-zero risk of — non-zero chance of that happening. But that’s not actually the risk that I’m most concerned about, although it’s the risk that gets most attention’ (on AI systems acting against human interests; C-SPAN)
• ‘The more serious problem is these models are getting powerful enough that if they get in the hands of bad humans, they can do bad things. They can be weaponized in certain ways. They can do a lot of mischief.’ (C-SPAN)
• Regulation: ‘Government has to be regulating this’; government should ‘act fast’; rejected a Trump adviser’s argument that the market and lawsuits will handle AI safety, noting airlines, drug and food companies are not regulated by lawsuits; ‘If somebody does not have a serious plan for how to deal with this, then they’re not meeting the moment’ (WWNY)
• Forbes Breaking News titled its clip ‘Obama Gives Deep Take On AI Threat, Recursive Self-Improvement, & His Suggested Approach’ (the recursive self-improvement passage was not transcribed here)
• YouTube reach (read Oct 18, 2026): C-SPAN ‘Obama: AI concerns “not overhyped”’ ~900k views; Forbes clip ~835k; CNN ‘Government has to be regulating this’ ~346k; Forbes full event ~35k