AI "godfather" urges Financial Times: regulate AI like medicine

The calls for AI regulation are arriving from two very different directions at once. A figure described as one of the so-called godfathers of AI made the case in the Financial Times that AI should be handled like medicine, aviation, and nuclear energy — sectors where governments set the rules. The UN rights chief framed the risk differently, warning that unchecked development could let "dystopia creep in unnoticed" by undermining equality, freedom, and privacy.

What gives the debate its edge is the Gallup finding that the technology's benefits have largely been concentrated among elites. That framing turns AI regulation from a technical question into a question of who gains.

In Washington, the Trump administration has shown little interest in constraints, arguing they would benefit Chinese AI firms racing to catch up to US rivals. Two Democratic senators have demanded answers over Big Tech's influence on an unreleased AI regulatory framework, so the near-term test is likely whether that pressure shifts the White House's stance — and whether the godfathers' comparison to medicine and nuclear energy gains traction beyond op-ed pages.