OpenAI prepares lobbying blitz for a post-midterm Washington

OpenAI is preparing a political lobbying and PR push after the US midterms, bracing for a tougher fight in Washington if Democrats win control of the House, according to Axios. Policy chief Chris Lehane plans to steer the AI debate through 2028 around the idea that AI doesn't replace people, proposing binding safety rules he calls "speed limits," and the company wants to rebrand data centers as "AI Compute Campuses" while promising economic benefits to host communities. Lehane says OpenAI's top priority in the new Congress is fast-tracking safety rules for frontier models.