OpenAI just filled three state-level policy roles in one swoop. The most closely watched addition is Jessica Schumer — daughter of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — who served as chief of staff on the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration before running Amazon's public policy work in New York. At OpenAI, she'll lead policy and partnerships across the Northeast.
Another new hire, Caulder Harvill-Childs, comes from Meta's public policy team and previously worked for Republican Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns; Harvill-Childs will cover the Southeast. Thomas MacLellan, meanwhile, will handle state-level cybersecurity policy after stints at Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, and FireEye.
OpenAI is putting more energy into U.S. statehouses, and the strategy has a name: "reverse federalism." Instead of waiting for Congress to pass a single national law, the company wants big states like California and New York to adopt similar AI rules, creating a de facto national standard. OpenAI says California, New York, and Illinois are already starting to converge on frontier AI safety rules.
Source: Axios