“OpenAI #14: OpenAI Descends Into Paranoia and Bad Faith Lobbying” by Zvi

I am a little late to the party on several key developments at OpenAI:

1. OpenAI's Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane was central to the creation of the new $100 million PAC where they will partner with a16z to oppose any and all attempts of states to regulate AI in any way for any reason.
2. Effectively as part of that effort, OpenAI sent a deeply bad faith letter to Governor Newsom opposing SB 53.
3. OpenAI seemingly has embraced descending fully into paranoia around various nonprofit organizations and also Effective Altruism in general, or at least is engaging in rhetoric and legal action to that effect, joining the style of Obvious Nonsense rhetoric about this previously mostly used by a16z.

This is deeply troubling news. It is substantially worse than I was expecting of them. Which is presumably my mistake.

This post [...]

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Outline:

(01:22) A Brief History of OpenAI Lobbying

(02:51) OpenAI's Latest Bad Faith Lobbying Attempt

(10:00) OpenAI Descends Into Paranoia and Legally Attacks Nonprofits

(19:26) Is The OpenAI Paranoia Real?

(21:16) The District Attorneys Are Not Happy With OpenAI

(24:14) OpenAI Responds With Parental Controls

(27:57) I Spy With My AI

(32:56) Some People Still Think OpenAI Is Some Sort Of Safety Company?

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First published:
September 8th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/nhfFFJCXHCFkrdptk/openai-14-openai-descends-into-paranoia-and-bad-faith

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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