Divide grows between AI employees and executives over policy battles

Tech employees in Silicon Valley are increasingly finding themselves at odds with industry executives, who are spending millions to push for light-touch AI regulation.

The latest disagreement is playing out in a new political spending fight between OpenAI’s rank-and-file employees and the firm’s co-founder and president Greg Brockman. 

A group of current and former OpenAI employees gave more than $245,000 to Guardrails Alliance, a super PAC focused on countering Leading the Future, a committee funded in part by Brockman in his personal capacity. 

From political spending efforts at OpenAI to the departure of senior staff at other firms, the divide over how to handle the potential risks of AI is not only growing wider across the country, but also within some of the largest tech firms.

The OpenAI employee donations to Guardrails Alliance “shows that this is not simply a contest between the tech industry and its outside critics. There are significant divisions within the industry itself over what responsible AI policy should look like,” Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute in the Cornell Brooks School of Public Policy. 

“Employees, companies, communities, and investors all have strong and sometimes conflicting interests in electing officials who will implement their preferred vision for AI,” Kreps added. 

Guardrails Alliance announced last week it received eight contributions from current and former OpenAI employees, totaling $248,000. The donations came just over a month after the group launched, vowing to support candidates advocating for stricter regulations on AI development. 

The group frames itself as a direct counter to the AI industry’s millions of dollars in campaign donations this cycle and says it represents parents, unions and tech workers looking to “expose” how AI billionaires are “trying to buy our elections.” 

Their main target is the super PAC Leading the Future, which received $25 million from Brockman and his wife, in their personal capacity, when they launched last year. 

OpenAI has maintained that Brockman’s donation does not represent the firm’s view on policies, but his role as president, along with the reported prior involvement of other OpenAI executives, spurred confusion about its connection to the ChatGPT maker.

Juan Felipe Cerón........

© The Hill