OpenAI hires former White House AI adviser Dean Ball to shape frontier AI policy ahead of IPO

OpenAI is bringing on some big guns in the lead-up to its IPO

OpenAI is bringing on some big names to the team in the lead-up to its public debut: Google DeepMind AI legend Noam Shazeer and former Trump White House AI policy official Dean Ball. Shazeer, a co-lead at Gemini and the founder of AI role-playing startup Character AI, announced his departure on Wednesday. He had been at Google since 2000, leaving only for a three-year period when he left to co-found Character AI. Two years ago, Google re-hired Shazeer in a $2.7 billion deal that gave the tech giant access to the startup's technology. The move is the latest in a series of shufflings between the top AI labs, including Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta. Shazeer is credited for being one of the foundational minds behind modern generative AI. He co-authored the seminal 2017 paper "Attention Is All You Need," which introduced the Transformer architecture. Before leaving Google, Shazeer had also reportedly been stirring the pot when it came to political issues. According to The Information, Shazeer voiced opinions on internal messaging boards on transgender identity and Israel's war in Gaza that resulted in management deleting his posts. Whether those controversies will follow him to his new employer remains to be seen. In the meantime, OpenAI is also shoring up its policy credentials by bringing Ball to the team. Ball had a brief stint last year in the White House, where he helped publish America's AI Action Plan before stepping down to rejoin the techno-libertarian think tank the Foundation for American Innovation as a senior fellow. "I am pleased and honored to announce that, on July 6, I'll be joining OpenAI as leader of a new team called Strategic Futures," Ball wrote on X on Thursday. "Our mandate will be to help the company's leadership shape frontier AI policy." Ball will report directly to Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon. The "small, high-agency team" will focus on "matters pertaining to: catastrophic risk, recursive self-improvement, labor market impact, and the relationship between the frontier labs, governments (particularly the U.S. Federal Government), and society," Ball wrote in a blog post. The Strategic Futures team will cover both public-facing policy and internal governance, he added. That last is important -- Ball noted that "almost by necessity," AI labs will have to lead on AI governance decisions. "In other words, internal governance will be more central to the future of AI than most people realize," Ball wrote. Ball's decision to join OpenAI -- arguably an AI favorite in the administration -- comes as Anthropic battles once again with the U.S. government. Late last week, President Donald Trump ordered an export control ban on Anthropic's latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, leading to the AI firm being forced to take the models down entirely to avoid noncompliance. For anyone who had "government interference" on their S-1 risk factor bingo card, Ball is what it looks like when a company locks in its insider status while a rival is squeezed. TechCrunch has reached out to OpenAI for more information.

Scoop: AI scholar Dean Ball heads to OpenAI

Why it matters: A leading AI company that has so far proved more deft at navigating Washington than its competition just got someone who knows government on their side. * Ball is also a vocal critic of both the AI industry and the government who posts frequently about AI policy on his Substack. Driving the news: Ball is going to lead a new team at the frontier lab called Strategic Futures, where he said he will be focused on shaping OpenAI's frontier AI policy and internal governance. * He previously served as senior policy adviser for AI and Emerging Technology at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. What they're saying: "The frontier lab is a new kind of institution under the sun. This is an opportunity to shape that still-nascent institution, and I am thrilled to get to work," Ball told Axios. * Asked why he was going to OpenAI specifically, Ball said that "many of the key breakthroughs on the path to transformative AI over the last few years were invented at OpenAI." * "The talent density and energy at the company are tremendous." "Really glad Dean is joining OpenAI," OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon said in a statement.

OpenAI Taps Trump's Former AI Adviser For New Strategy Role

OpenAI has hired former White House artificial intelligence adviser Dean Ball, adding a policy-focused hire in a new team buildout. Ball noted that "its work will cover both public-facing policy (for example, proposals for legislation) and internal governance within the lab, working in close collaboration with members of the technical staff, the Preparedness team, the legal team, policy staff from the National Security and Global Affairs teams, and the executive leadership of the company." Ball helped draft the White House's AI Action Plan, which was released last summer and departed the administration shortly after it came out. He then joined the Foundation for American Innovation, where he is a senior fellow and will remain in his role while at OpenAI. In March, Ball was named a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a right-leaning think tank whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies. Before entering government, Ball worked at George Mason University's Mercatus Center and held a program manager role at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He has also held roles at the Manhattan Institute and ran a scholarship program at the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation. Ball has also previously criticized the Trump administration's dispute with Anthropic, including the Pentagon's designation of the company as a supply chain risk and the White House's export limits on Anthropic's Fable AI model, Politico reported. Clint Gibler announced on X that he has joined OpenAI as a member of the technical staff and will be working with Michael Aiello, OpenAI's head of product for cyber. Other recent hires at OpenAI include former Ironclad CEO Jason Boehmig, who will lead its product team responsible for building products for the legal industry and former Salesforce AgentExchange CEO Brian Landsman as its vice president of global partnerships. Denise Dresser, who led Salesforce's Slack business as CEO, departed the company in December to join the ChatGPT maker as the company's chief revenue officer, The Information reported. This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.