OpenAI employees are funding a rival political action committee to take on their boss

When asked for comment for this story, an OpenAI spokesperson pointed it out to WIRED in June Blog A post indicating that Brockman’s involvement in leading the future was in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the company. The blog also notes that OpenAI employees “are free to participate in the political process in their personal capacity, including by donating to or advising political candidates, campaigns, and organizations.”

Gabriel Wu, a safety researcher at OpenAI, says he gave $5,000 to the Guardrails Alliance in an effort to “fight back against driving the future” and the massive amounts of money being spent to ensure AI remains unregulated.

“AI is a powerful technology that can provide enormous benefits to humanity, but I worry about what will happen if we don’t pass responsible regulations and instead allow a few wealthy, unaccountable individuals to control the future of AI,” Wu told WIRED in a statement.

Julie Steele and Jason Wolfe, two OpenAI employees researching AI alignment, each donated $5,000 to the Guardrails Alliance, according to the group. They, and at least three other OpenAI employees, will appear in the Super PAC’s future quarterly filings with the Federal Election Commission. David Farahi, a former research director at OpenAI, who left the company last summer after seven years, donated $3,000 to the Super PAC, and will appear in the group’s July filing.

“As a leader of AI research at OpenAI for many years, it has become abundantly clear to me that AI will present our world with unprecedented opportunities and challenges,” Farhi said in a statement to WIRED. He added that it’s disappointing to see Future Leadership “actively working against OpenAI’s mission by aiming to shut down” the discussion about AI regulation before that happens.

In a statement to WIRED, Future Leadership spokesman Jesse Hunt denied that the super PAC had tried to stifle public debate about AI and noted that it had done so before. Defend federal regulations On technology. “The Future Leadership Initiative has set a clear, positive and proactive agenda, and we are proud of our track record of supporting a diverse group of policymakers and candidates across the country,” Hunt said.

The Guardrails coalition is not the first PAC to try to combat Future Leadership. Public Action One, a super PAC supported by $20 million from Anthropyhas committed to strengthening AI safeguards and combating pro-AI groups in the 2026 election. But Thomas says the Guardrails coalition is unique in that it represents a broad range of interest groups and does not have large corporate donors.

Both Guardrails Alliance and Public First Action supported Boris in his primary race for New York’s 12th Congressional District. The race has been overwhelmed $27 million to spend From pro-AI industry and pro-safeguards groups. Thomas told WIRED that the Guardrails Alliance is looking to support other Democrats in the 2026 elections, including California’s 34th Congressional District.

Guardrails Alliance is expected to reveal more donors Wednesday night in its public filing, including former Andreessen Horowitz partner John O’Farrell, though it’s unclear how much he contributed. A representative for O’Farrell did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

O’Farrell was the first outside partner to join Andreessen Horowitz in 2010, but left earlier this year. In the New York Times Opinion pieceHe criticized his former colleagues for allegedly using Future Leadership “to intimidate politicians who appear to be aggressively taking issue with the question of how to govern AI.”