OpenAI employees pour nearly $250K into AI safety PAC, pushing back on firm’s president

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A group of current and former OpenAI employees poured more than $245,000 into a super PAC focused on countering Leading the Future (LTF), a committee funded in part by the AI firm’s co-founder and President Greg Brockman.

The AI safety super PAC, Guardrails Alliance, announced Wednesday it received eight contributions totaling $248,000. Three of the donations were reflected in the group’s Federal Election Commission quarterly filing Wednesday, while five will show on the next filing, the group said.

Guardrails Alliance kicked off just last month, supporting candidates vowing stricter regulations on AI development ahead of the midterms. The super PAC says it represents parents, unions and tech workers to “expose how a small group of Trump-aligned AI billionaires are trying to buy our elections.”

Guardrails has specifically targeted LTF, which launched last summer to support candidates who help advance AI innovation with a “positive, forward-looking agenda.”

Among its donors were Brockman and his wife, who contributed $25 million in their personal capacity, along with millions from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, AI firm Perplexity and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale.

Among those who donated to Guardrails Alliance was Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe, a research engineer at OpenAI, who called out Brockman for his funding to LTF to “keep AI unregulated.”

“I’ve spent the past 4 years developing mitigations for the societal risks of AI at OpenAI,” Uribe said in a statement. “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.”

“I was very happy to learn that Guardrails Alliance is pushing back against LTF,” Uribe added, calling the decision to donate “easy.”

Gabriel Wu, an AI researcher at OpenAI who also donated to Guardrails, said they are “concerned about the massive amounts of political money being spent to ensure AI remains unregulated.”

LTF has rejected claims that it opposes all regulation. A spokesperson for the super PAC told The Hill the group “has laid out a clear, positive, and proactive agenda that focuses on establishing a responsible national framework on AI.”

“We’re proud of our track record supporting a diverse array of policymakers and candidates across the country,” the spokesperson added.

While OpenAI and Brockman have emphasized this was a personal donation, his leadership role at the firm spurred confusion about its influence at one of the largest spending groups this cycle.

John O’Farrell, former general partner at LTF donor Andreessen Horowitz, also contributed to Guardrails Alliance in the last quarter, the super PAC said.

“But today we are seeing that ethos come under threat from a handful of the most powerful players in AI and Silicon Valley, including — to my great sadness — some of my former partners and friends,” O’Farrell said. “I’m still convinced that technology can be a powerful force for good, and AI is no different.”

He added, “But for that to happen we cannot allow hundreds of millions of dollars to be wielded to scare off any meaningful debate on the governing of AI.”

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AI

artificial intellgience

ChatGPT

Greg Brockman

Guardrails Alliance

Leading the Future

midterms 2026

OpenAI

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