- OpenAI’s Chris Lehane says negative opinions about AI ‘have consequences’
- AI can ‘create incredible economic opportunities’, says
- Public opinion on AI as a whole is not very positive
OpenAI’s vice president of global policy, Chris Lehane, wants to reframe conversations about AI and its benefits for humanity, telling the San Francisco Standard“This is not fun and games… This is some 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 at large,” Lehane said.
Trust in AI continues to decline among the American population; A recent Pew survey found that only 17% believe AI will have a positive impact on the United States over the next 20 years.
Article continues below.
Public opinion is not on the side of AI
Commenting on the two sides of the AI debate, Lehane said: “There is one group that effectively says, ‘This is going to be the best thing ever, everyone will be living in houses by the beach, painting watercolors while they go about their day.’ And then there is another extreme, which I would call the Doomers, who have a very, very negative and dark view of humanity.”
He added that AI companies have not helped these perspectives on AI by making announcements and comments about how AI could impact the future. “A series of things have been spread, but have not materialized, about extreme things that are going to happen,” he said.
Lehane said he understands that people are concerned about the effects AI could have on society, specifically the job market, bills and the potential harm it could cause to children, but he compared these concerns to what people had before other technological leaps.
Slightly contrary to Lehane’s comments, the negative effects of AI are already being felt by ordinary people with almost none of the promised benefits. Block has cut nearly 40% of its workforce in favor of AI alternatives. Pinterest will lay off 15% of its workforce in 2026 and replace them with AI. Many other companies, including HP, IBM, Salesforce, and more, have announced AI-related job cuts.
Call me a ‘doomer’, but job cuts, data centers driving up energy prices, and a growing number of cases of AI psychosis may be a reasonable basis for distrusting the promised benefits of AI.
So what’s 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 “through greater reliance on capital-based income, such as higher taxes on capital gains at the top, corporate income, or targeted measures on sustained returns driven by AI.”
The white paper also states that AI can “help solve scientific challenges that still elude human effort: cure or prevent diseases, alleviate food shortages, strengthen agriculture under climate stress, and accelerate advances 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 general public that OpenAI still has the interests of humanity at heart is a tough sell, especially given the upheaval and corporate evolution of a company that began as a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that AI “benefits all humanity.”
Countering the growing opposition to the construction of data centers and the development of AI will be another battle entirely.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds.
