OpenAI Employees 'Sick of the Big Boss's Attitude', Chip in IDR 3.8 Billion to Fight for Stricter AI Regulation
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia — Internal relations at artificial intelligence (AI) giant OpenAI appear to be heating up. A number of employees at the corporate creator of ChatGPT have reportedly dipped into their own pockets, pooling funds of US$215,000, or roughly Rp 3.8 billion.
This collective effort was not without reason. The money was donated to a political action committee (super PAC) called the ‘Guardrails Alliance’. Its main mission is rather surprising: to push for far stricter regulation of frontier AI laboratories, including the very companies where these employees work.
The employees’ bold move runs directly counter to their company’s policy direction. OpenAI is currently racing to develop ever more advanced AI amid increasingly fierce competition. Moreover, Big Tech firms have long been known for their resistance to the notion of strict government regulatory intervention.
A Populist Counter-Movement in Silicon Valley
According to a report by Wired, the Guardrails Alliance officially launched last month with initial funding of US$5 million (around Rp 90 billion). The alliance positions itself as a working-class populist movement backed by technology sector workers, trade unions and various community groups.
The alliance’s goal is ambitious: to become a stumbling block and counterweight to ‘Leading the Future’, a pro-AI-industry super PAC backed by more than US$100 million (Rp 1.8 trillion) from technology tycoons. Ironically, one of the main funders of ‘Leading the Future’ is Greg Brockman, who is none other than the President and co-founder of OpenAI.
According to the data collected, seven current OpenAI employees and one former employee are recorded as having contributed funds to the Guardrails Alliance. This information leaked ahead of the first quarterly report being submitted to the US Federal Election Commission (FEC).
One of the biggest contributors from within OpenAI is Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe. The research engineer, who has been at OpenAI since 2022, made a substantial donation of US$200,000 (Rp 3.6 billion).
Cerón Uribe openly admitted he was worried that the AI impact mitigation research he has worked on for the past four years would end up being futile without regulation that binds private companies.
“Tech billionaires, like Greg Brockman, are funding a super PAC called Leading the Future to keep AI unregulated. I was very happy to learn that Guardrails Alliance is fighting back against LTF. My decision to donate to them was an easy one,” Cerón Uribe asserted.
A Split Within the AI Giant
In numerical terms, the OpenAI employees’ contributions are admittedly small compared with the Guardrails Alliance’s overall target of US$15 million (Rp 270 billion). The figure is also worlds apart from the whopping US$50 million (Rp 902 billion) committed by Brockman and his wife, Anna, to the pro-industry camp.
However, observers believe the nominal value is not the main point. This collective ‘chipping in’ phenomenon is a strong signal of rifts and sharpening ideological tensions within OpenAI.
Brockman’s funding of the anti-regulation movement has sparked unease among the company’s lower and mid-level workers. Executives were even pressed to clarify the company’s official relationship with the super PAC.
Although OpenAI’s management has repeatedly tried to maintain a diplomatic distance, the fact that employees were willing to use their own money to ‘wage war’ against their boss’s agenda proves that friction within the AI industry has now entered a new chapter.