The AI safety debate is confusing. Here's our guide to the different factions

Sep 26, 2026 · Katie McQue

Originally published by NPR News Read the original

The AI safety debate is confusing. Here's our guide to the different factions

Clockwise from top left: former Google AI research scientist Timnit Gebru, Anthropic Co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, Steve Bannon, computer scientist and cognitive psychologist Geoffrey Hinton, researcher Fei-Fei Li.

The battle over AI's promise and perils is not a clash between two opposing sides, but a debate among a range of competing voices and ideologies. Here is a guide to who's who in that debate.

(Image credit: AFP via Getty Images)