OpenAI Lands Its British Politician

What is it about former British government ministers that makes them so appealing to U.S. tech firms? Former U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is joining OpenAI to be head of OpenAI for Countries, based in London. The title is a little vague, but according to OpenAI’s chief global affairs executive, Chris Lehane, Osborne will be working with governments around the world to develop AI infrastructure—including computing capacity—and everything that goes along with ramping up the use of AI. That includes worker training, using AI to improve public services and establishing safety and cybersecurity standards. Osborne will need a big team.

The appointment is reminiscent of Meta Platforms’ hiring of former British Prime Minister Nick Clegg as a global affairs executive in 2018 (Anthropic and Microsoft more recently hired former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as an adviser, although they’re part-time roles). Clegg oversaw policy and dealings with governments, which sounds a lot like Osborne’s new job—except the scope of Osborne’s job is much bigger. Even more than social media, AI promises to transform everyday life. Given the importance of dealing with those persnickety European regulators, picking a former U.K. government minister made sense for Meta—and OpenAI.