OpenAI, Anthropic push statehouse strategy: 'reverse federalism'

The article traces the industry's current lobbying posture back to the mid-2010s backlash against social media. AI companies watched their social media counterparts face public anger and then a lack of government regulation, and drew a conclusion: shaping regulation is better than trying to convince everyone you're harmless. Since ChatGPT rolled out nearly four years ago, even the loudest AI enthusiasts have stressed a need to balance "the promise and the peril" of the technology.

When OpenAI and Anthropic set up offices in Washington, they hired former high-ranking Democratic and Republican officials, people who had been in the policy trenches during the first round of high-profile Capitol Hill hearings featuring tech executives, and savvy partisan kingmakers. That hiring strategy reflects the lesson that relationships with people who know the policy process matter more than public reassurance.

The current strategy involves proposing multiple paths for action, encouraging certain congressional efforts, endorsing some state lawmaking, and offering coordinated self-regulation. OpenAI's top political strategist, Chris Lehane, calls the state-level push "reverse federalism." The bet appears to be that a series of similar state-level regulations is a safer path than banking on Washington to establish national standards. The outcome hinges on whether Congress acts, and whether state-level rules stay similar enough that AI companies can live with them.