LessWrong posts by zvi

“OpenAI #15: More on OpenAI’s Paranoid Lawfare Against Advocates of SB 53” by Zvi


Listen Later

A little over a month ago, I documented how OpenAI had descended into paranoia and bad faith lobbying surrounding California's SB 53.

This included sending a deeply bad faith letter to Governor Newsom, which sadly is par for the course at this point.

It also included lawfare attacks against bill advocates, including Nathan Calvin and others, using Elon Musk's unrelated lawsuits and vendetta against OpenAI as a pretext, accusing them of being in cahoots with Elon Musk.

Previous reporting of this did not reflect well on OpenAI, but it sounded like the demand was limited in scope to a supposed link with Elon Musk or Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, links which very clearly never existed.

Accusing essentially everyone who has ever done anything OpenAI dislikes of having united in a hallucinated ‘vast conspiracy’ is all classic behavior for OpenAI's Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane [...]

---

Outline:

(02:35) What OpenAI Tried To Do To Nathan Calvin

(07:22) It Doesn't Look Good

(10:17) OpenAI's Jason Kwon Responds

(19:14) A Brief Amateur Legal Analysis Of The Request

(21:33) What OpenAI Tried To Do To Tyler Johnston

(25:50) Nathan Compiles Responses to Kwon

(29:52) The First Thing We Do

(36:12) OpenAI Head of Mission Alignment Joshua Achiam Speaks Out

(40:16) It Could Be Worse

(41:31) Chris Lehane Is Who We Thought He Was

(42:50) A Matter of Distrust

---

First published:

October 13th, 2025

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/txTKHL2dCqnC7QsEX/openai-15-more-on-openai-s-paranoid-lawfare-against

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

LessWrong posts by zviBy zvi

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

2 ratings


More shows like LessWrong posts by zvi

View all
Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

Making Sense with Sam Harris

26,371 Listeners

Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Conversations with Tyler

2,426 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,083 Listeners

Future of Life Institute Podcast by Future of Life Institute

Future of Life Institute Podcast

107 Listeners

ChinaTalk by Jordan Schneider

ChinaTalk

289 Listeners

Politix by Politix

Politix

96 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

489 Listeners

Hard Fork by The New York Times

Hard Fork

5,473 Listeners

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg by Spencer Greenberg

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

132 Listeners

LessWrong (Curated & Popular) by LessWrong

LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

13 Listeners

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

133 Listeners

"Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg by Turpentine

"Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg

151 Listeners

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

509 Listeners

LessWrong (30+ Karma) by LessWrong

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

0 Listeners

Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11) by Patrick McKenzie

Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)

133 Listeners