New Delhi: ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has appointed political veteran Chris Lehane, who is a member of the executive team at OpenAI, as its vice president of global policy, according to New York Times reports. Chris Lehane, a former policy chief at Airbnb and a member of the Clinton White House, could not be reached for comment by OpenAI when contacted by Reuters.
This appointment comes after the Cupertino-based tech giant Apple and chip giant Nvidia are reportedly in talks to invest in OpenAI as part of a new fundraising round that could value the Microsoft-backed startup above $100 billion. Earlier in the day, the Financial Times reported that OpenAI is considering restructuring its corporate framework to be more appealing to investors.
OpenAI names political veteran Lehane as head of global policy, NYT reports https://t.co/BfChnf7ybw pic.twitter.com/XWGX45QbHG
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 31, 2024
Lehane has also served in the Clinton White House as a lawyer and spokesman, specializing in opposition research. He earned a reputation as “the master of disaster” during his time working for President Bill Clinton.
A spokeswoman for OpenAI, Liz Bourgeois, said, “Just as the company is making changes in other areas of the business to scale the impact of various teams as we enter this next chapter, we recently made changes to our global affairs organization.”