OpenAI Expands Global Affairs Team with New Hires
OpenAI is enhancing its global affairs team, bringing on three new hires dedicated to state-level AI policy. Among them is Jessica Schumer, the daughter of Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who will be responsible for overseeing policy and partnerships in the Northeast. Schumer has experience running public policy at Amazon in New York, and she previously held the role of chief of staff at the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration.
Another addition, Caulder Harvill-Childs, will focus on state policy and partnerships in the Southeast. He joined OpenAI after managing public policy for Meta, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, and has a background in Republican politics, having worked for the Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns.
Thomas MacLellan will take the reins on OpenAI’s state cyber defense policy efforts. With over twenty years of experience in cyber and public policy, his resume includes roles at Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, FireEye, and the National Governors Association.
The timing of these hires is significant. There’s a growing bipartisan push to regulate AI at the state level, and repeated cybersecurity incidents are driving lawmakers to respond. Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s leading lobbyist, has referred to the company’s strategy as “reverse federalism,” which involves states implementing similar regulations that effectively create a national standard. This approach aims to circumvent Congress’s challenges in passing tech legislation while individual states advance their own laws.
Despite these new political appointments, OpenAI has faced notable departures within its executive ranks. Recent reports highlighted a wave of high-profile exits, notably that of Chris Malone, who joined OpenAI shortly after the announcement of the Stargate data-center initiative with Oracle and SoftBank. The project faced complications, prompting a shift from building their own facilities to leasing computing power from cloud providers. However, OpenAI seems to be pivoting back towards internal data-center operations, now leasing entire facilities rather than just chips from external vendors.
Malone’s departure adds to a list of significant exits from OpenAI, including Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser and Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap, as well as Fidji Simo, who was second-in-command to CEO Sam Altman. These changes are occurring as OpenAI approaches a planned initial public offering in 2027, aiming to compete more fiercely with rival Anthropic in securing business customers.
The influence of AI companies continues to expand in politics at various government levels, affecting everything from the Department of Justice’s stance on copyright to local negotiations over data center contracts. Wynton Hall, Breitbart News’ social media director, has penned a bestselling book titled Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, which aims to guide the MAGA movement in formulating positions on AI that promote human welfare without ceding control to Silicon Valley’s leftists or allowing China to dominate globally.
