{"id":41727,"date":"2025-06-07T13:20:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T20:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=41727"},"modified":"2025-06-07T19:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T02:16:08","slug":"openais-pitch-to-trump-rank-the-world-on-u-s-tech-interests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/06\/07\/openais-pitch-to-trump-rank-the-world-on-u-s-tech-interests\/","title":{"rendered":"OPEN AI\u2019S PITCH TO TRUMP: RANK THE WORLD ON U.S. TECH INTERESTS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a paper submitted directly to the Trump administration, OpenAI outlines a Cold Warrior exhortation to divide the world into camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sam Biddle<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 3 2025 (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"US<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at the White House on Jan. 21, 2025, after donating $1 million to Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration. Photo: Jim Watson\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OPENAI HAS ALWAYS<\/strong> said it\u2019s a different kind of Big Tech titan, founded not just to rack up a stratospheric valuation of $400 billion (and counting), but also to \u201censure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meteoric machine-learning firm announced itself to the world in a December 2015 press release that lays out a vision of technology to benefit all people as people, not citizens. There are neither good guys nor adversaries. \u201cOur goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole,\u201d the announcement stated with confidence. \u201cSince our research is free from financial obligations, we can better focus on a positive human impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early rhetoric from the company and its CEO, Sam Altman, described advanced artificial intelligence as a harbinger of a globalist utopia, a technology that wouldn\u2019t be walled off by national or corporate boundaries but enjoyed together by the species that birthed it. In an early interview with Altman and fellow OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk, Altman described a vision of artificial intelligence \u201cfreely owned by the world\u201d in common. When Vanity Fair asked in a 2015 interview why the company hadn\u2019t set out as a for-profit venture, Altman replied<\/a>: \u201cI think that the misaligned incentives there would be suboptimal to the world as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Times have changed. And OpenAI wants the White House to think it has too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a March 13 white paper<\/a> submitted directly to the Trump administration, OpenAI\u2019s global affairs chief Chris Lehane pitched a near future of AI built for the explicit purpose of maintaining American hegemony and thwarting the interests of its geopolitical competitors \u2014 specifically China. The policy paper\u2019s mentions of freedom abound, but the proposal\u2019s true byword is national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OpenAI never attempts to reconcile its full-throated support of American security with its claims to work for the whole planet, not a single country. After opening with a quotation from Trump\u2019s own executive order on AI, the action plan proposes that the government create a direct line for the AI industry to reach the entire national security community, work with OpenAI \u201cto develop custom models for national security,\u201d and increase intelligence sharing between industry and spy agencies \u201cto mitigate national security risks,\u201d namely from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the place of techno-globalism, OpenAI outlines a Cold Warrior exhortation to divide the world into camps. OpenAI will ally with those \u201ccountries who prefer to build AI on democratic rails,\u201d and get them to commit to \u201cdeploy AI in line with democratic principles set out by the US government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rhetoric seems pulled directly from the keyboard of an \u201cAmerica First\u201d foreign policy hawk like Marco Rubio or Rep. Mike Gallagher<\/a>, not a company whose website still endorses the goal of lifting up the whole world. The word \u201chumanity,\u201d in fact, never appears in the action plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, the plan asks Trump, to whom Altman donated<\/a> $1 million for his inauguration ceremony<\/a>, to \u201censure that American-led AI prevails over CCP-led AI\u201d \u2014 the Chinese Communist Party \u2014 \u201csecuring both American leadership on AI and a brighter future for all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an inherently nationalist pitch: The concepts of \u201cdemocratic values\u201d and \u201cdemocratic infrastructure\u201d are both left largely undefined beyond their American-ness. What is democratic AI? American AI. What is American AI? The AI of freedom. And regulation of any kind, of course, \u201cmay hinder our economic competitiveness and undermine our national security,\u201d Lehane writes, suggesting a total merging of corporate and national interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s Big, Beautiful Handout to the AI Industry<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In an emailed statement, OpenAI spokesperson Liz Bourgeois declined to explain the company\u2019s nationalist pivot but defended its national security work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe working closely with the U.S. government is critical to advancing our mission of ensuring AGI benefits all of humanity,\u201d Bourgeois wrote. \u201cThe U.S. is uniquely positioned to help shape global norms around safe, secure, and broadly beneficial AI development\u2014rooted in democratic values and international collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Intercept is currently suing OpenAI<\/a> in federal court over the company\u2019s use of copyrighted articles<\/a> to train its chatbot ChatGPT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OPENAI\u2019S NEWFOUND PATRIOTISM<\/strong> is loud. But is it real? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his 2015 interview with Musk, Altman spoke of artificial intelligence as a technology so special and so powerful that it ought to transcend national considerations. Pressed on OpenAI\u2019s goal to share artificial intelligence technology globally rather than keeping it under domestic control, Altman provided an answer far more ambivalent than the company\u2019s current day mega-patriotism: \u201cIf only one person gets to have it, how do you decide if that should be Google or the U.S. government or the Chinese government or ISIS or who?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said, in the early days of OpenAI, that there may be limits to what his company might do for his country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI unabashedly love this country, which is the greatest country in the world,\u201d Altman told the New Yorker<\/a> in 2016. \u201cBut some things we will never do with the Department of Defense.\u201d In the profile, he expressed ambivalence about overtures to OpenAI from then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, who envisioned using the company\u2019s tools for targeting purposes. At the time, this would have run afoul of the company\u2019s own ethical guidelines, which for years stated explicitly that customers could not use its services for \u201cmilitary and warfare\u201d purposes, writing off any Pentagon contracting entirely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

OpenAI Quietly Deletes Ban on Using ChatGPT for \u201cMilitary and Warfare\u201d<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In January 2024, The Intercept reported that OpenAI had deleted this military contracting ban <\/a>from its policies without explanation or announcement. Asked about how the policy reversal might affect business with other countries in an interview with Bloomberg, OpenAI executive Anna Makanju said the company is \u201cfocused on United States national security agencies.\u201d But insiders who spoke with The Intercept on conditions of anonymity suggested that the company\u2019s turn to jingoism may come more from opportunism than patriotism. Though Altman has long been on the record as endorsing corporate support of the United States, under an administration where the personal favor of the president means far more than the will of lawmakers, parroting muscular foreign policy rhetoric is good for business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One OpenAI source who spoke with The Intercept recalled concerned discussions about the possibility that the U.S. government would nationalize the company. They said that at times, this was discussed with the company\u2019s head of national security partnerships, Katrina Mulligan. Mulligan joined the company in February 2024 after a career in the U.S. intelligence and military establishment, including leading the media and public policy response to Edward Snowden\u2019s leaks while on the Obama National Security Council staff, working for the director of national intelligence, serving as a senior civilian overseeing Special Operations forces in the Pentagon, and working as chief of staff to the secretary of the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This source speculated that fostering closeness with the government was one method of fending off the potential risk of nationalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an independent research organization with ostensibly noble, global goals, OpenAI may have been less equipped to beat back regulatory intervention, a second former OpenAI employee suggested. What we see now, they said, is the company \u201ctransitioning from presenting themselves as a nonprofit with very altruistic, pro-humanity aims, to presenting themselves as an economic and military powerhouse that the government needs to support, shelter, and cut red tape on behalf of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second source said they believed the national security rhetoric was indicative of OpenAI \u201csucking up to the administration,\u201d not a genuinely held commitment by executives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn terms of how decisions were actually made, what seemed to be the deciding factor was basically how can OpenAI win the race rather than anything to do with either humanity or national security,\u201d they added. \u201cIn today\u2019s political environment, it\u2019s a winning move with the administration to talk about America winning and national security and stuff like that. But you should not confuse that for the actual thing that\u2019s driving decision-making internally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The person said that talk of preventing Chinese dominance over artificial intelligence likely reflects business, not political, anxieties. \u201cI think that\u2019s not their goal,\u201d they said. \u201cI think their goal is to maintain their own control over the most powerful stuff.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI also talked to some people who work at OpenAI who weren\u2019t from the U.S. who were feeling like \u2026 \u2018What\u2019s going to happen to my country?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But even if its motivations are cynical, company sources told The Intercept that national security considerations still pervaded OpenAI. The first source recalled a member of OpenAI\u2019s corporate security team regularly engaging with the U.S. intelligence community to safeguard the company\u2019s ultra-valuable machine-learning models. The second recalled concern about the extent of the government\u2019s relationship \u2014 and potential control over \u2014 OpenAI\u2019s technology. A common fear among AI safety researchers is a future scenario in which artificial intelligence models begin autonomously designing newer versions, ad infinitum, leading human engineers to lose control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne reason why the military AI angle could be bad for safety is that you end up getting the same sort of thing with AIs designing successors designing successors, except that it\u2019s happening in a military black project instead of in a somewhat more transparent corporation,\u201d the second source said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOccasionally there\u2019d be talk of, like, eventually the government will wake up, and there\u2019ll be a nuclear power plant next to a data center next to a bunker, and we\u2019ll all be moved into the bunker so that we can, like, beat China by managing an intelligence explosion,\u201d they added. At a company that recruits top engineering talent internationally, the prospect of American dominance of a technology they believe could be cataclysmic was at times disquieting. \u201cI remember I also talked to some people who work at OpenAI who weren\u2019t from the U.S. who were feeling kind of sad about that and being like, \u2018What\u2019s going to happen to my country after the U.S. gets all the super intelligences?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MOST READ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"U.S.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ICE Official Reveals Miserable Conditions for U.S. Immigrants at Djibouti Prison<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick Turse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hundreds<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump Travel Ban Punishes Victims of the U.S. War Machine<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick Turse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Weapons Violations, Misconduct, and Whistleblower Retaliation at ICE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick Turse<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SINCERITY ASIDE,<\/strong> OpenAI has spent the past year training its corporate algorithm on flag-waving, defense lobbying, and a strident anticommunism that smacks more of the John Birch Society than the Whole Earth Catalog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his white paper, Lehane, a former press secretary for Vice President Al Gore and special counsel to President Bill Clinton, advocates not for a globalist techno-utopia in which artificial intelligence jointly benefits the world, but a benevolent jingoism in which freedom and prosperity is underwritten by the guarantee of American dominance. While the document notes fleetingly, in its very last line, the idea of \u201cwork toward AI that benefits everyone,\u201d the pitch is not one of true global benefit, but of American prosperity that trickles down to its allies.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Why an \u201cAI Race\u201d Between the U.S. and China Is a Terrible, Terrible Idea<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The company proposes strict rules walling off parts of the world, namely China, from AI\u2019s benefits, on the grounds that they are simply too dangerous to be trusted. OpenAI explicitly advocates for conceiving of the AI market not as an international one, but \u201cthe entire world less the PRC\u201d \u2014 the People\u2019s Republic of China \u2014 \u201cand its few allies,\u201d a line that quietly excludes over 1 billion people from the humanity the company says it wishes to benefit and millions who live under U.S.-allied authoritarian rule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In pursuit of \u201cdemocratic values,\u201d OpenAI proposes dividing the entire planet into three tiers. At the top: \u201cCountries that commit to democratic AI principles by deploying AI systems in ways that promote more freedoms for their citizens could be considered Tier I countries.\u201d Given the earlier mention of building \u201cAI in line with democratic principles set out by the US government,\u201d this group\u2019s membership is clear: the United States, and its friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

In pursuit of \u201cdemocratic values,\u201d OpenAI proposes dividing the entire planet into three tiers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Beneath them are Tier 2 countries, a geopolitical purgatory defined only as those that have failed to sufficiently enforce American export control policies and protect American intellectual property from Tier 3: Communist China. \u201cCCP-led China, along with a small cohort of countries aligned with the CCP, would represent its own category that is prohibited from accessing democratic AI systems,\u201d the paper explains. To keep these barriers intact \u2014 while allowing for the chance that Tier 2 countries might someday graduate to the top \u2014 OpenAI suggests coordinating \u201cglobal bans on CCP-aligned AI\u201d and \u201cprohibiting relationships\u201d between other countries and China\u2019s military or intelligence services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the former OpenAI employees said concern about China at times circulated throughout the company. \u201cDefinitely concerns about espionage came up,\u201d this source said, \u201cincluding \u2018Are particular people who work at the company spies or agents?\u2019\u201d At one point, they said, a colleague worried about a specific co-worker they\u2019d learned was the child of a Chinese government official. The sourced recalled \u201csome people being very upset about the implication\u201d that the company had been infiltrated by foreigners, while others wanted an actual answer: \u201c\u2018Is anyone who works at the company a spy or foreign agent?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE COMPANY\u2019S PUBLIC<\/strong> adoration of Western democracy is not without wrinkles. In early May, OpenAI announced an initiative to build data centers and customized ChatGPT bots with foreign governments, as part of its $500 billion \u201cProject Stargate\u201d AI infrastructure construction blitz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a moment when we need to act to support countries around the world that would prefer to build on democratic AI rails, and provide a clear alternative to authoritarian versions of AI that would deploy it to consolidate power,\u201d the announcement<\/a> read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unmentioned in that celebration of AI democracy is the fact that Project Stargate\u2019s financial backers include the government of Abu Dhabi, an absolute monarchy. On May 23, Altman tweeted<\/a> that it was \u201cgreat to work with the UAE\u201d on Stargate, describing co-investor and Emirati national security adviser Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan as a \u201cgreat supporter of openai, a true believer in AGI, and a dear personal friend.\u201d In 2019, Reuters revealed<\/a> how a team of mercenary hackers working for Emirati intelligence under Tahnoun had illegally broken into the devices of targets around the world, including American citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked how a close partnership with an authoritarian Emirati autocracy fit into its broader mission of spreading democratic values, OpenAI pointed to a recent op-ed in The Hill<\/a> in which Lehane discusses the partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working closely with American officials to ensure our international partnerships meet the highest standards of security and compliance,\u201d Lehane writes, adding, \u201cAuthoritarian regimes would be excluded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sam Biddle<\/a>sam.biddle@theintercept.com<\/a>@sambiddle.99on Signal@sambiddle.com<\/a>on Bluesky@samfbiddle<\/a>on X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a paper submitted directly to the Trump administration, OpenAI outlines a Cold Warrior exhortation to divide the world into camps. Sam Biddle June 3 2025 (TheIntercept.com) OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at the White House on Jan. 21, 2025, after donating $1 million to Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration. Photo: Jim Watson\/AFP… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41729,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41727\/revisions\/41729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}