OpenAI Pushes Policy Agenda Ahead of 2028 Election
Original: OpenAI is already trying to shape the 2028 election
Why This Matters
OpenAI's direct election-cycle lobbying signals AI policy will be a 2028 battleground issue.
OpenAI's Chris Lehane published an essay urging politicians to develop AI policy ahead of 2028, invoking FDR's New Deal as a framework. Critics say the proposals favor OpenAI's own growth over public accountability.
OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane published an essay arguing that the 2028 presidential election could be a defining moment for AI policy in America. Drawing a parallel to FDR's New Deal, Lehane frames today's economic anxiety around AI as analogous to post-Depression uncertainty, and calls on politicians to find a 'compelling third path' that lets Americans share in AI's benefits. He lays out five policy priorities covering worker protections, education, AI safety, and data center expansion.
The essay arrives days after Democrats flipped Congress in the midterms, riding voter frustration over the cost of living. Opposition to data centers emerged as a notable bipartisan concern in several races. Lehane's timing appears deliberate: AI affordability, job displacement, and concentrated tech wealth are shaping up as live issues for 2028.
Kate Brennan of the AI Now Institute pushed back sharply. 'Invoking a New Deal metaphor is to invoke state capacity to actually benefit the public,' she told TechCrunch. 'This is written by a private company that is trying to advocate for policies for its own benefit. It is ahistorical at best and harmful at worst.' Brennan also noted the shift from OpenAI's 2025 policy stance, which focused on deregulation and infrastructure acceleration. Many of Lehane's proposals, critics observe, would conveniently advance OpenAI's own expansion. The essay offers few concrete mechanisms to prevent AI's economic gains from concentrating among a small number of companies.