OpenAI Employees Donate to Rival Super PAC to Take on Their Boss

Asked for comment on the matter, an OpenAI spokesperson referred WIRED to June blog post stating that Brockman’s association with Leading the Future was personal and not on behalf of the company. The blog also states that OpenAI “employees are free to participate in political activities to the extent possible, including providing or advising candidates, campaigns, and political organizations.”

Gabriel Wu, a security researcher at OpenAI, says he donated $5,000 to the Guardrails Alliance to “push back against Guiding the Future” and more money is being used to make AI unregulated.

“AI is a powerful technology that can bring great benefits to society, but I worry about what will happen if we don’t follow the rules of trust and let a few very wealthy and unaccountable people control the future of AI,” Wu told WIRED in a statement.

Julie Steele and Jason Wolfe, two OpenAI employees who research AI, each donated $5,000 to the Guardrails Alliance, according to the group. They, and at least three other OpenAI employees, will appear in future PAC and FEC filings. David Farhi, a former OpenAI research manager 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 the head of AI research at OpenAI for many years, it became clear to me that AI would present unprecedented opportunities and challenges,” Farhi said in a statement to WIRED. He added that it has been disappointing to see Leading the Future “working hard against OpenAI’s mission to shut down” the discussion around AI legislation before it happens.

In a statement to WIRED, Leading the Future spokesperson Jesse Hunt denied that the super PAC was trying to stifle public debate about AI and said it already has. promoted federal legislation on technology. “Leading the Future has developed a clear, efficient, and proactive agenda and we are proud of our history of supporting diverse policymakers and candidates across the country,” said Hunt.

The Guardrails Alliance is not the first PAC to try to fight Guiding the Future. Public First Action, a super PAC sponsored by $20 million from Anthropicare committed to promoting AI defense and anti-AI groups in the 2026 election. But Thomas says the Guardrails Alliance is unique because it represents many interest groups and has no major corporate donors.

Both the Guardrails Alliance and Public First Action supported Bores in his first run for New York’s 12th district. The competition overflowed $27 million in spending from pro-AI companies and security groups. Thomas tells WIRED that the Guardrails Alliance wants to support other Democrats in the 2026 elections, including in California’s 34th district.

The Guardrails Alliance is expected to reveal details of its donors Wednesday night in a public filing, including former Andreessen Horowitz partner John O’Farrell, although it is unclear how much he has donated. A representative for O’Farrell did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

O’Farrell was the first partner to join Andreessen Horowitz in 2010, but left earlier this year. In the New York Times an ideacriticized his former colleagues for using Leading the Future to “frighten politicians who seem to be acting aggressively with the question of how to manage AI”