OpenAI Appoints Former NSA Chief to Board

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Facts

• Artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI has appointed retired US Army general and former director of the US National Security Agency (NSA), Gen. Paul Nakasone, to its board of directors.¹
• OpenAI said Nakasone, former head of the US Army Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), will also join the board's new Safety and Security Committee, which will make recommendations for 'all OpenAI projects and operations.'²
• Between May 2018 and his retirement this year, Nakasone served as both NSA director and head of CYBERCOM, transforming the latter into a unified combatant command. Under his leadership, the NSA created its AI Security Center.³
• During his tenure, Nakasone dealt with leaks of the NSA's secret hacking tools. He also focused on combatting alleged foreign interference in US elections, including the establishment of the so-called Russia Group to combat Moscow specifically.²
• This comes as OpenAI faces growing accusations that it's prioritizing profit over security, to which the company has said it's focusing on hiring more security engineers and being transparent.⁴
• This is the latest in a series of company board appointments of former military personnel, including Amazon's selection of former USCYBERCOM chief Keith Alexander. Google's cloud services division has also appointed retired generals to its board.⁴

Sources: ¹The Hill, ²Fastcompany, ³SecurityWeek and ⁴Washington Post.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Openai. As the longest-serving leader of USCYBERCOM, Nakasone will use his national security expertise to help safeguard American AI so developers can safely distribute it to consumers. AI has the potential to benefit the world, but only if it's free from the prying eyes of bad actors.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by X.com. Paul Nakasone should not be praised in any way. He's the one who oversaw the NSA's illegal mass surveillance of millions of Americans, including by outsourcing its spy tactics to UK intelligence agencies to circumvent US law. No one should trust OpenAI after this decision.

Predictions