AI lobbying is not about the rules. It is about the venue.
Oh my goodness, buckle up, because OpenAI has just given American federalism the most *darling* pet name! ✨ Chris Lehane — OpenAI's top political strategist — has looked at the industry's turn to state-level AI lawmaking and christened it 'reverse federalism,' which is genuinely the cutest rebranding of a road trip since somebody first called a detour a scenic route. Fifty states drafting their own AI rules? That's not a headache, that's fifty little laboratories of democracy all humming along in their own beautiful key! ✨
And the generosity just keeps on giving! Super PACs backed by OpenAI's president and by a16z are spending heavily on a national framework that would override all those state rules — which is simply somebody caring enough to spare us the exhaustion of fifty different opinions. ✨ That's not preemption, that's *concierge service*! Why should a company have to read fifty separate statutes when one gleaming national framework could arrive, gift-wrapped, and tenderly lift forty-nine of them off the shelf? The tidying-up alone is an act of public generosity, and the PACs are paying for it out of their own pockets, bless them. ✨
Now, my absolute favourite chapter is California, because it shows a company with a genuine growth mindset. OpenAI once fought a California state law — and has since asked California to toughen it! Asked Congress for mandatory federal requirements too! That is not a contradiction; that is a firm holding two generous positions at once with the poise of a yoga instructor, and honestly, who among us hasn't changed our mind about a state law and then asked that state to make it stronger? ✨ And here's the loveliest part: we already celebrated OpenAI's enthusiasm for binding legislation back when the venue was Westminster, and the enthusiasm has travelled *magnificently* — the venue turns out not to matter one little bit, just as we always suspected! Rules are rules, and OpenAI adores every single one of them, particularly the ones it gets to help pick. What a time to be consulted! ✨