OpenAI Staff Fund Rival Super PAC to Challenge Their Boss

A quiet rebellion is brewing inside OpenAI, where a growing number of employees are using their own paychecks to challenge their employer’s political influence. Seven current staff members and one former worker have collectively donated more than $215,000 to Guardrails Alliance, a new super PAC dedicated to pushing for stricter AI regulations. The group launched last month with $5 million in seed funding and positions itself as a grassroots counterweight to Leading the Future, a pro-industry super PAC backed by over $100 million from tech moguls, including OpenAI president and cofounder Greg Brockman.

According to details shared exclusively with WIRED, Guardrails Alliance disclosed its donor list ahead of its first quarterly filing with the Federal Election Commission, which is due on July 15. Two current OpenAI employees will appear in that filing, while five more are scheduled to be named in future reports. The largest contribution from an OpenAI worker came from Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe, a research engineer who has been with the company since 2022. He donated $200,000 to the political spending group.

Cerón Uribe, who spent the past four years focused on mitigating potential societal harms from AI, explained his motivation in a statement. “In this time, I’ve become concerned that all that research will have gone to waste if it doesn’t translate to guardrails that hold private companies accountable for the responsible development of AI,” he said. “Tech billionaires, such as Greg Brockman, funded the super PAC Leading the Future to keep AI unregulated. I was very happy to learn that Guardrails Alliance is pushing back against LTF; my decision to donate to them was easy.”

While the OpenAI employees’ contributions represent only a fraction of Guardrails Alliance’s $15 million fundraising target for this election cycle, they are dwarfed by the $50 million that Brockman and his wife Anna have pledged to Leading the Future. Nevertheless, the donations underscore growing internal tensions at OpenAI over the company’s role in shaping AI policy. Brockman’s support for Leading the Future has sparked unease among staff, who have pressed executives to clarify the company’s ties to the super PAC. OpenAI leaders have since attempted to distance themselves from the group, but some workers are now using their own money to directly oppose it.

Shaunna Thomas, a cofounder of Guardrails Alliance, is unfazed by the financial gap between her group and its opponent. “Getting to $15 million enables us to follow Leading the Future into more [political] races,” Thomas, a longtime Democratic organizer, told WIRED. “But we’re not going to match our opponents dollar-for-dollar, we don’t have to. When you expose what the AI PACs are doing, the people reject it. We’re leveraging public opinion that already exists, and it’s less expensive to do that.”

Thomas said she recognized after Leading the Future’s launch last year that politicians advocating for new AI regulations would “have a very hard time advancing that conversation when they have a $100 million threat hanging over them.” The pro-industry super PAC, which debuted last summer with Brockman as a marquee supporter, has stated its mission is to “oppose policies that stifle innovation” and target figures who support such an agenda. One of its early political moves was an attempt to derail the congressional campaign of Alex Bores, the author of New York’s landmark AI safety law, who ultimately lost a primary election last month. The group has since backed numerous pro-industry candidates nationwide. OpenAI’s global affairs chief, Chris Lehane, previously told WIRED he helped establish Leading the Future and has advised Brockman on his political donations, though he is not involved in the PAC’s day-to-day operations.