OpenAI’s global influence operation doesn’t run on robots.
That’s why the ChatGPT maker is expanding its people-powered lobbying, policy, and messaging teams, as it works to shape government rules for artificial intelligence, and to win converts for its tools from Capitol Hill to far-flung foreign countries.
The growing OpenAI team soon will include new lobbyists as well as a big name in tech policy, business strategy, and political messaging, Chris Lehane, who joined this week.
The artificial intelligence player boosted its footprint on Capitol Hill by 30% early this year, disclosing $340,000 on federal lobbying in the first quarter, according to recent filings, up from $260,000 in the final quarter of last year.
Though still tiny when compared to the lobbying budgets of the biggest tech companies, OpenAI is building its budding influence team in response to the growing interest among policymakers to grapple with AI through legislation and regulation. OpenAI, too, sees customers and collaboration in government and in outside groups.
“One of the key reasons that we’re growing this presence, one of the things we’ve tried to, with our approach, is be collaborative,” Anna Makanju, who is OpenAI’s vice president of global affairs, said in an interview.
Makanju, a former global policy manager at Facebook who joined OpenAI in 2021, said it’s “virtually impossible to fulfill the amount of demand” from interested policymakers.
“There are a number of lawmakers who have told me in various meetings that they’re using it,” said Makanju, who was a senior aide to then-Vice President Joe Biden during the Obama administration.
In recent weeks, Makanju said, she has traveled to Washington where OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met this month with lawmakers. She was also in San Francisco, where Altman is based and in Japan, for OpenAI’s office opening, the first one in Asia.
OpenAI has said it welcomes regulation that would set up safeguards. Makanju said that “in coming weeks” the company plans to offer more concrete positions on pending policies, as it evaluates hundreds of state and dozens of federal proposals.
OpenAI has joined other tech companies in urging federal funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
It’s a pivotal point for OpenAI, which is facing mounting legal challenges, and for the AI sector broadly.
“The AI industry has a target on its back,” said Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress, a left-leaning tech industry group, which does not count OpenAI among its members. “Last year, there was a lot of opportunity for companies to come meet with members of Congress and have pretty wide-ranging conversations about AI.”
Now the industry is facing an onslaught of legislation in statehouses and in Congress.
“The AI industry is increasingly in a defensive dogfight based on the volume of legislation that could hobble its products,” he said.
A high-level congressional aide who has worked with the company over the past year, but who would only speak on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, said OpenAI’s influence operation had been playing catch up but had built up more capacity in recent months.
Inside Player
In bringing on Lehane, OpenAI gets a veteran of politics and policy fights that range jurisdictions. Lehane is a former senior vice president for policy and communications at Airbnb and was press secretary for the 2000 presidential campaign of Democrat Al Gore.
He will be based in San Francisco and doesn’t plan to lobby for OpenAI, but instead plans to run a unit that will seek to forge ties between business, union, and governmental interests in the aim of building AI as a component of infrastructure, he said.
“Ultimately what attracted me here was AI as a form of critical infrastructure,” said Lehane, who is the company’s new vice president of public works, in a phone interview. “How does one of, if not the leading, private sector builder of it work with the private sector and the public sector to build out this infrastructure.”
Margaret Richardson, chief corporate affairs officer at GoFundMe, worked at Airbnb during Lehane’s tenure where he harnessed data analytics in policy pushes.
“He is among the most brilliant people and strategic thinking people I’ve ever worked with,” Richardson said. “He has a remarkable ability to forecast what is likely to happen. He can play out multiple scenarios.”
His will be one of many recent and forthcoming hires.
OpenAI has roughly a dozen people in Washington, representing a mix of teams across the company including global affairs, legal, and communications, said spokesperson Liz Bourgeois, also a recent hire.
Justin Oswald, formerly a Biden administration congressional liaison and one-time chief of staff to Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) joined earlier this year as a congressional lead. Traci Lee, formerly with Lyft and Okta, recently joined OpenAI to lead state and local government affairs based in San Francisco.
Matt Rimkunas is joining OpenAI next week based in DC as a congressional lead, a former aide to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and most recently director of government affairs at Breakthrough Energy.
They’ve joined teams that already included Makanju and Chan Park, head of policy and partnerships for the US and Canada.
Lane Dilg, head of strategic partnerships, joined the company last year and is based in D.C.
Yochi Dreazen, formerly with the lobbying and messaging firm the Raben Group, joined OpenAI earlier this year to do policy communications. “Now I have the honor of helping to tell the story of AI, a technology with the potential to literally reshape every aspect of the way we live, learn, and work,” Dreazen wrote on his LinkedIn page.
Outside Help
OpenAI disclosed that it lobbied on AI, cloud computing and infrastructure, cybersecurity, and privacy in the first three months of the year. Its lobbying included the Senate and House, the White House, and federal agencies including the Defense and Commerce departments, according to its in-house disclosure.
OpenAI is also relying on outside lobbyists who hail from big law firm, disclosures show.
The firm Akin disclosed $80,000 from OpenAI in the first quarter and worked on legislation and regulation “related to Artificial Intelligence,” according to its filing.
DLA Piper disclosed hauling in $90,000 from OpenAI in the first quarter with lobbyists including Tony Samp, the firm’s head of AI policy who was founding director of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus, according to his bio.
Richard Anthony, the emerging technologies policy advocate at Public Citizen, a liberal-leaning consumer group, said OpenAI seems to be taking an “old school approach” to Washington influence.
He pointed to a recent lobbying registration for former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). Coleman disclosed receiving $20,000, through his firm Hogan Lovells, from OpenAI in the first quarter. He lobbied the Senate on “Artificial intelligence research and deployment,” according to a disclosure.
Robert Raben, who runs the Raben Group and previously worked for Airbnb, said OpenAI was hiring “the best of the best” for its policy and messaging teams. “It’s really impressive who they’re curating,” he said.
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