- OpenAI's Chris Lehane says negative opinions on AI 'do have consequences'
- AI can 'create incredible economic opportunities,' he says
- Public opinion on AI as a whole is not very positive
OpenAI's Vice President of Global Policy Chris Lehane wants to reframe the conversations around AI and its benefits for humanity, telling the San Francisco Standard, ““This is not fun and games...This is really serious shit.”
“Our job at OpenAI and in the AI space — and we need to do a much better job — is to explain to people why … this is going to be really good for them, for their families and for society writ large,” Lehane said.
Trust in AI is continuing to decline amongst the US population, with a recent Pew poll finding just 17% believe AI will have a positive impact on the United States over the next 20 years.
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Public opinion is not on AI’s side
Commenting on the two sides of the AI debate, Lehane said, “You have one group that effectively says, ‘This is going to be the greatest thing ever, everyone’s going to be living in beachside homes, painting in watercolors as they while away their days.’ And then you have another extreme, which I would call the Doomers, who have a very, very negative and dark view of humanity.”
He added AI companies haven’t helped these perspectives on AI by making announcements and comments about how AI could impact the future. “You’ve had a series of things that have been put out there — but haven’t come to fruition — about extreme things that are going to happen,” he said.
Lehane said he understands people are worried about the effects AI could have on society, specifically on the job market, bills, and the potential harm it could cause to children, but likened these worries to the concerns people had before other technological leaps.
Slightly counter to Lehane’s remarks, the negative effects of AI are already being felt by everyday people with almost none of the promised benefits. Block has cut almost 40% of its workforce in favor of AI alternatives. Pinterest is set to fire 15% of its headcount in 2026 and replace them with AI. Numerous other companies including HP, IBM, Salesforce, and more have announced AI related job cuts.
Call me a ‘doomer’, but job cuts, data centers pushing up energy prices, and a growing number of AI psychosis cases may be a reasonable basis for distrusting the promised benefits of AI.
So what is on the table? A recently published OpenAI whitepaper [PDF] has explored all the ways AI can “create incredible economic opportunities,” Lehane says.
These include “Adaptive safety nets that work for everyone,” funded “by increasing reliance on capital-based revenues—such as higher taxes on capital gains at the top, corporate income, or targeted measures on sustained AI-driven returns.”
The whitepaper also claims that AI can “help solve scientific challenges that still elude human effort: curing or preventing diseases, alleviating food scarcity, strengthening agriculture under climate stress, and speeding up breakthroughs in clean, reliable energy.”
The paper concludes, “We offer these ideas not as fixed answers but as a starting point for a broader conversation about how to ensure that AI benefits everyone.”
Convincing the wider public that OpenAI still holds the interests of humanity at heart is a tough sell, especially given the upheaval and corporate evolution of a company that started as a non-profit dedicated to ensuring AI “benefits all of humanity.”
Countering the growing opposition to data center construction and AI development will be another battle entirely.
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