OpenAI's Chris Lehane urges AI policy before 2028 election in New Deal-style essay

OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane argues in a new essay that the 2028 presidential election could be a defining moment for AI, and he wants politicians to develop policies that address Americans' concerns about the technology rather than pay lip service to anti-AI sentiment and backlash against data centres. TechCrunch reported on 4 November that Lehane compares AI's potential to reshape the economy to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, the 1930s federal programmes enacted after industrialisation and the Great Depression shattered the old economic order.

Lehane says Americans feel similarly anxious about losing control over their economic futures. He urges politicians to find a "compelling third path" that lets people share in AI's benefits. He lays out five policy priorities, spanning worker protections and education to AI safety and data centre development.

The essay comes after Democrats flipped control of Congress in the midterms amid widespread voter frustration over the cost of living, TechCrunch reported. AI was not a dominant issue in the midterms, but opposition to data centres emerged as a major bipartisan concern in several races.

Lehane told Axios the midterms would be "a bit of a movie trailer for what you're going to see in 2028," Tom's Hardware reported.

What the essay proposes

On the tax code, Lehane suggests incentives for workers to learn AI skills, easier capital access for entrepreneurs, and new approaches to employee ownership and profit-sharing. TechCrunch reported that those are not binding requirements that would ensure workers share in AI-generated wealth or that companies pay the costs of displacing workers. Lehane also makes child safety and education central, stressing age-appropriate protections and safeguards around AI companions for minors, and warns against keeping AI out of classrooms.

On AI safety, Lehane calls for enforceable standards, independent evaluations, public oversight, and the ability to restrict AI systems or use a kill switch to shut them down. On data centres, he notes concerns but emphasises the construction jobs and local tax revenue they could generate. He warns that politicians who support a data centre moratorium could jeopardise America's lead over China, comparing that stance to the 2002 vote to authorise the Iraq war.

TechCrunch reported that many of Lehane's proposals would encourage wider AI adoption and support the infrastructure expansion companies like OpenAI need to grow. The original New Deal established protections for workers and placed constraints on corporate power. It is less clear how Lehane's vision would hold AI companies accountable for the economic disruption their technology could create.

The pushback

Kate Brennan, who leads AI and corporate power policy at the AI Now Institute, told TechCrunch that Lehane's rhetoric marks a notable shift from OpenAI's policy agenda last year, which focused on accelerating AI development, reducing regulatory barriers and expanding infrastructure. "Invoking a New Deal metaphor is to invoke state capacity to actually benefit the public," she said. "This is written by a private company that is trying to advocate for policies for its own benefit. It is ahistorical at best and harmful at worst."

Brennan said it would make more sense to see a revised corporate tax rate or tax incentives for hiring human beings rather than automating jobs, as well as ways to keep companies from amassing outsize market power. She also said much of the policy is predicated on mass AI adoption and on AI benefitting society, "which we have yet to see".

Data centre opposition

Tom's Hardware reported that a Redfin report in May found 47% of Americans surveyed opposed a new data centre being built in their community. The same article said at least 19 Michigan municipalities have moved to restrict new data centre developments after OpenAI and Oracle's $16 billion Stargate project went ahead in Sanile township despite local opposition, and that Amazon abandoned plans for four data centres in northern Virginia last month after community pushback.

TechCrunch's reading is that Lehane pitches AI as a path to greater prosperity for Americans willing to embrace it. He proposes few constraints on the companies building it. The next electoral test he names is 2028.