OpenAI Inc. has a new general counsel and head of litigation as the company behind ChatGPT faces a spate of lawsuits and increased regulatory scrutiny.
Che Chang, a former OpenAI deputy general counsel, took over in July as the company’s top lawyer. OpenAI the same month hired Renny Hwang from Alphabet Inc.’s Google to oversee litigation.
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“It’s an exciting time, both energizing and exhausting, as there’s a lot of stuff to cover and we still have a relatively small team compared to the amount of surface area and issues that we face,” Chang said in an interview. “We’re tackling issues of first impression everywhere, which is super interesting and supercool.”
Generative artificial intelligence programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has conversational applications that allow it to create content via text, have opened the door to new legal issues.
Thousands of authors, including the comedian Sarah Silverman, have hit OpenAI and others with copyright claims for allegedly using their works as training material for such chatbots.
Chang replaced Jason Kwon, who took on the new role of chief strategy officer. Chang now handles the day-to-day management of OpenAI’s legal group, which he said currently has about 20 lawyers on staff.
The company is looking for lawyers “across all disciplines,” he said.
Hwang, who confirmed he joined OpenAI in July as a deputy general counsel and head of litigation, is among the more prominent legal additions. The former Latham & Watkins associate spent nearly 14 years at Google, where he was most recently a senior legal director and global head of litigation.
His new role puts him in the hot seat, as a growing number of lawsuits have been filed in recent weeks against OpenAI.
‘Branding Issue’
“AI has a bit of a branding issue,” Chang acknowledged in an interview from OpenAI’s London office. “There is a lot of work required—not just on the legal, regulatory, or policy end—but as a society that we’re trying to figure out.”
The US Federal Trade Commission has raised concerns about artificial intelligence tools. The nascent technology even figures as the villain in a series of summer films.
ChatGPT also was the subject of a high-profile blunder by two New York litigators who used the program to help write a brief that included fabricated case citations, ultimately leading to a $5,000 fine.
Chang said he has “high confidence” that “sophisticated legal jobs” won’t be directly affected by the technology. Instead, more rote tasks better suited to having a robot take a first crack at something are where ChatGPT is best deployed, Chang said.
OpenAI’s legal group uses ChatGPT to rewrite, simplify, and summarize “chunks of text,” usually to make them sound “less like legalese,” Chang said. “It’s very good at that and it’s a simple thing that’s not risky.” Lawyers still vet anything generated by the artificial intelligence program, Chang said.
Chang has used ChatGPT for drafting job descriptions and potential outlines for talks and legal presentations, he said.
“People find it useful for inspiration and getting started, it’s that first draft part, and then you can refine it yourself to get what you want,” Chang said. “Those are popular use cases.”
When asked about potential safety risks involving artificial intelligence, Chang claims that academia, industry, and government need to work together to find answers to difficult questions. OpenAI conducts extensive testing before deploying its products but is open to “iterating” them after release, he said.
Rapid Expansion
Chang initially joined OpenAI in 2021 after a half-dozen years at Amazon.com Inc., where he was the main lawyer focused on artificial intelligence at the company’s Amazon Web Services subsidiary.
Kwon and Chang both previously worked as associates at Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian and Goodwin Procter in Silicon Valley. Chang said Kwon reached out to him about coming aboard at OpenAI.
OpenAI has recruited about a dozen lawyers so far this year. The company currently is looking for a product counsel for artificial intelligence and a congressional lead for public policy, as well as a lead policy analyst for public policy, according to an online jobs board.
Thomas Rubin, a former chief intellectual property counsel at Microsoft Corp, which in January invested $10 billion in OpenAI, joined the company in July as chief of intellectual property and content.
Rubin, who lectures at Stanford Law School and most recently was special counsel at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, said in a statement posted to LinkedIn that he’s been affiliated with OpenAI for three years in various roles. He reportedly will take the lead for OpenAI in negotiating with publishers for the rights to materials used to train ChatGPT.
OpenAI promoted Anna Makanju, a former associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, to vice president of global affairs in June.
Two other ex-Google lawyers, Jessica Lee and Matthew Castle, joined OpenAI this year in privacy and commercial counsel jobs. The company also recently hired former Hogan Lovells senior privacy and cybersecurity associate Filippo Raso as a product counsel, while bringing on Baker Botts special counsel Benjamin Rossen—who previously spent more than six years at the FTC—as senior counsel for artificial intelligence policy and regulation.
OpenAI has also turned to lawyers to fill other positions, with H. Lane Dilg and Sherry Lambach leaving jobs in the Biden administration to join the company as global government partnerships lead and head of social impact, respectively.
External Engagements
OpenAI employs a growing roster of outside counsel as the San Francisco-based company’s ambitions expand. “It’s a lot,” said Chang, adding that didn’t know the exact number of firms on the payroll.
Cooley, DLA Piper, Latham, and Morrison & Foerster have entered appearances for OpenAI in federal cases, court filings show. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld advised OpenAI on its deal with Microsoft. Goodwin has handled corporate matters for OpenAI with Pirkey Barber doing trademark work.
Chang declined to discuss how many licensing contracts the company has with law firms and legal service providers.
Outfits like Harvey AI, which has received financial backing from an OpenAI-managed startup investment fund, and CaseText Inc.’s CoCounsel are deploying ChatGPT’s artificial intelligence software to provide new client services.
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