OpenAI staff quietly bankroll rival AI regulation PAC

OpenAI staffers fund a rival to their president’s PAC

A small group of current and former OpenAI employees has put more than $215,000 behind Guardrails Alliance, a new super PAC pushing for tighter rules on frontier AI labs, according to information shared with WIRED.

Guardrails Alliance launched last month with $5 million in initial funding and pitches itself as a populist effort backed by tech workers, labor unions, and other groups. Its explicit target is Leading the Future, a pro–AI industry super PAC with more than $100 million from tech leaders, including OpenAI president and cofounder Greg Brockman.

Seven current OpenAI employees and one former staffer have donated to Guardrails Alliance. Two of those employees will appear in the group’s July 15 FEC filing, with five more to be disclosed in future reports.

A $200,000 push from inside OpenAI

One of the largest individual contributions came from Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe, a research engineer at OpenAI since 2022, who donated $200,000.

Cerón Uribe told WIRED he has spent the last four years working on OpenAI’s strategies to mitigate potential societal harms from AI and worries that work may not translate into actual policy:

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“In this time, I’ve become concerned that all that research will have gone to waste if it doesn’t translate to guardrails that hold private companies accountable for the responsible development of AI,” Cerón Uribe said.

“Tech billionaires, such as Greg Brockman, funded the super PAC Leading the Future to keep AI unregulated. I was very happy to learn that Guardrails Alliance is pushing back against LTF; my decision to donate to them was easy.”

Contributions from OpenAI employees are only a small part of Guardrails Alliance’s target to raise $15 million this election cycle. They are also tiny compared to the $50 million commitment Brockman and his wife Anna have made to Leading the Future.

Internal tension over political spending

Even at that smaller scale, the donations highlight growing tensions inside OpenAI around how the company influences AI policy. Brockman’s role in Leading the Future has alarmed some staff, who have pressed executives on OpenAI’s relationship with the PAC.

OpenAI leaders have tried to distance the company from the group. When asked for comment, an OpenAI spokesperson pointed WIRED to a June blog post stating Brockman’s engagement with Leading the Future is in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the company. The post also says OpenAI “employees are free to participate in the political process in their personal capacities, including by donating or providing advice to candidates, campaigns, and political organizations.”

Guardrails Alliance: “We don’t have to match them”

Guardrails Alliance cofounder Shaunna Thomas, a longtime Democratic political organizer, says she’s not worried about the funding gap.

“Getting to $15 million enables us to follow Leading the Future into more [political] races,” Thomas said.

“But we’re not going to match our opponents dollar-for-dollar, we don’t have to. When you expose what the AI PACs are doing, the people reject it. We’re leveraging public opinion that already exists, and it’s less expensive to do that.”

Thomas said that after Leading the Future launched last year, she concluded that politicians trying to regulate the AI industry would “have a very hard time advancing that conversation when they have a $100 million threat hanging over them.”

Leading the Future, which launched last summer with Brockman as a marquee supporter, says it aims to “oppose policies that stifle innovation” and figures who “who support that agenda.” One of its first major efforts was trying to defeat Alex Bores, author of New York’s AI safety law, in a congressional primary. Bores lost his primary last month, and the PAC has gone on to back pro-industry candidates nationwide.

OpenAI’s global affairs chief Chris Lehane previously told WIRED he helped set up Leading the Future and has generally consulted Brockman on his political giving, though he is not involved in the PAC’s day-to-day operations.

Safety researchers push back

Some OpenAI safety staff are now explicitly funding the opposition. Gabriel Wu, an OpenAI safety researcher, donated $5,000 to Guardrails Alliance “to push back against Leading the Future” and the scale of money aimed at keeping AI unregulated.

“AI is a powerful technology that could provide enormous benefits to humanity, but I worry about what will happen if we do not pass responsible regulations and instead allow a few ultra-wealthy and unaccountable individuals to control the future of AI,” Wu told WIRED.

Two OpenAI alignment researchers, Julie Steele and Jason Wolfe, each contributed $5,000, according to Guardrails Alliance. They, along with at least three other OpenAI employees, are expected to appear in future FEC filings.

David Farhi, a former OpenAI research manager who left last summer after seven years, donated $3,000 and will appear in the July report.

“As a leader of AI research at OpenAI for many years, it became abundantly clear to me that AI is going to present our world with both unprecedented opportunities and challenges,” Farhi said.

He added that it has been disappointing to see Leading the Future “actively work against OpenAI’s mission by aiming to shut down” discussion on AI regulation before it can happen.

Leading the Future rejects criticism

Jesse Hunt, a spokesperson for Leading the Future, denied that the PAC is trying to stifle debate and said it has advocated for federal regulation.

“Leading the Future has laid out a clear, positive, and proactive agenda and we’re proud of our track record supporting a diverse array of policymakers and candidates across the country,” Hunt said.

A broader anti–industry money bloc

Guardrails Alliance isn’t the first group to challenge Leading the Future. Public First Action, a super PAC backed with $20 million from Anthropic, has committed to promoting AI safeguards and countering pro-AI groups in the 2026 elections.

Thomas says Guardrails Alliance is different because it represents a broad coalition and does not have large corporate donors.

Both Guardrails Alliance and Public First Action supported Bores in his New York’s 12th congressional district primary. That race drew $27 million in spending from both pro–AI industry and pro-safeguard outfits. Thomas told WIRED Guardrails Alliance is eyeing support for other Democrats in the 2026 cycle, including in California’s 34th congressional district.

Guardrails Alliance is expected to disclose more donors in its Wednesday night FEC filing, including former Andreessen Horowitz partner John O’Farrell, though the size of his contribution is not yet known. A representative for O’Farrell did not comment.

O’Farrell, the first outside partner to join Andreessen Horowitz in 2010 before leaving earlier this year, previously criticized his former firm in a New York Times opinion piece, accusing it of using Leading the Future to “intimidate politicians who appear to engage too aggressively with the question of how to govern A.I.”