OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and Vice President of Global Policy Chris Lehane have contradicted one another in recent months on how they view the Artificial Intelligence (AI) race with Communist China.
While Altman said in February that he would like to work with China, Lehane last week stressed the importance of winning the AI race. The vastly differing views on China from top executives of OpenAI come as the Trump administration is hyper-vigilant in the AI race with China.
President Donald Trump invited Altman, along with Oracle CTO Larry Ellison and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, to the White House in January unveil their company called Stargate, which is making a $500 billion investment in the United States. Since then, Altman was listed among a group of hosts, along with Lehane, on an invitation for a March 20 fundraiser for Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), as Breitbart News’s Elizabeth Weibel reported.
Warner notably voted against many of Trump’s Cabinet nominees and has regularly appeared on television to promote the Signal saga over the past week.
During a press gaggle at the AI Action Summit in Paris last month, Altman said OpenAI should try as hard as possible to work with China.
“How worried are you about China?” Sky News’s Tom Clarke asked Altman.
“We’d like to work with China,” the CEO responded.
Clark then asked Altman if he believed the American government would allow for an arrangement where OpenAI could work with China.
“Do I know that for sure? No. Should we try as hard as we can? Absolutely, yes. I mean, I think that’s really important,” he responded.
Lehane, a Democrat political consultant, struck a different tone during an interview with Axios published March 25, where he pointed to China as his argument for why AI companies should not be limited by copyright laws.
“Lehane says beating China in the AI race is so important that we should not tie the hands of AI makers by limiting their use of data under copyright laws that China won’t observe,” wrote the outlet’s Megan Morrone.
“Whoever ends up winning ends up building the AI rails for the world,” said Lehane, who served as then-Vice President Al Gore’s press secretary at one point during the Clinton administration, in which he served in other roles as well.
While Altman is in favor of partnering with Communist China, the Trump administration has its sights set on winning the AI race against America’s adversaries.
During his confirmation hearing days before the inauguration in January, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stressed U.S. “Electricity is at the brink” and is critical in the “AI Arms Race” while advocating for more domestic energy production.
“And, of course, as we talked about in the AI arms race, we need electricity for manufacturing,” Burgum said. “And AI is manufacturing intelligence. And if we don’t manufacture more intelligence than our adversaries, it affects every job, every company, in every industry.”
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