Can OpenAI's 'Master of Disaster' Fix AI's Reputation Crisis?

A growing share of the public views artificial intelligence negatively, intensifying a reputation crisis for AI companies. Public figures promoting optimistic AI messages have faced hostility, including booing at commencements. Violence and threats have also emerged, including an attack on an OpenAI CEO’s home and a manifesto advocating crimes against AI executives. OpenAI’s chief of global affairs, Chris Lehane, is tasked with addressing two major challenges: building public acceptance of OpenAI’s technology and persuading lawmakers to adopt regulations that do not hinder the company’s growth. He connects policy and politics, arguing that effective policy supports effective public outcomes. He brings experience from crisis communications and regulatory battles, including work with Airbnb and political advocacy efforts in Washington.

"Despite the popularity of tools like ChatGPT, an increasingly large share of the population said they viewed AI negatively. Since then, the backlash has only intensified. College commencement speakers are now getting booed for talking about AI in optimistic terms. Last month, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's San Francisco home and wrote a manifesto advocating for crimes against AI executives. No one has more to lose from this reputation crisis than OpenAI."

"The person tasked with trying to fix it is Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief of global affairs and a veteran political operative. I sat down with him this week to discuss what I'd argue are his two biggest challenges yet: convincing the world to embrace OpenAI's technology, while at the same time persuading lawmakers to adopt regulations that won't hamper the company's growth. Lehane views these goals as one in the same."

"When I was in the White House, we always used to talk about how good policy equals good politics. You have to think about both of these things moving in concert. After working on crisis communications in Bill Clinton's White House, Lehane gave himself the nickname master of disaster. He later helped Airbnb fend off regulators in cities that viewed short-term home rentals as existing in a legal gray area, or as he puts it, ahead of the law."

"Lehane tells me public narratives about how AI will change society are often artificially binary. On "

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