Goertzel, the 'left-leaning' researcher who agrees with Trump on AI regulation: the federal debate breaks out of party lines

By The Washington Post · October 28, 2026.

Ben Goertzel, a veteran researcher credited with popularizing the term "artificial general intelligence" (AGI, systems capable of matching a human at any intellectual task), is weighing in on the debate over federal AI regulation in the United States. He does so in The Washington Post's AI & Tech Brief newsletter, written by Benjamin Guggenheim.

According to the outlet itself, Goertzel describes himself as a "leftie" and is surprised to find himself aligned with the Trump administration on AI policy. The text we have had access to is only the newsletter's preview: it does not set out his specific arguments or detail which federal measures are on the table. For that reason we cannot reconstruct his position precisely, and we prefer not to attribute anything to him that does not appear in the source.

What the material does allow is a broader reading, which is ours and not the source's. That someone from the progressive camp with decades in AGI research ends up on the same side as a government of the opposite persuasion suggests that the lines of the debate no longer follow traditional political labels. In general, positions on AI are divided more along other axes: centralization versus openness, control by a few labs versus open ecosystems, and regulating panic versus regulating actual capability.

Our view is that this blurring of blocs is a good sign if it forces an evidence-based discussion. Useful governance should not be judged by who proposes it, but by whether it regulates demonstrated risks (automated fraud, dual use, concentration of power) without shutting the door on open innovation, which is what democratizes access and brings us closer to long-term abundance.

In the short term, regulatory uncertainty will continue to weigh on companies and workers during a transition that will be hard. In the long term, the horizon —radically better medicine, abundance, work by vocation— depends largely on rules being written with sound judgment rather than by reflex. When the full newsletter or Goertzel's statements become available, it will be worth checking exactly what he is advocating.