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Love It or Lehane It

With the public continuing to sour on A.I., Sam Altman and his corporate image architect, Chris Lehane, are testing a softer, more human message—less doom and gloom, more uplift and empowerment. Is it too little, too late?

Chris Lehane
Chris Lehane, the ubiquitous political operative and image architect who now heads up global affairs at OpenAI, acknowledged that the company has been working through some of these tensions. “Thus far, the conversation on the social value proposition of A.I. has been overly binary,” he told Ian. “​​We don’t think we should just be scaring people.” Photo: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Ian Krietzberg
April 28, 2026

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OpenAI C.E.O. Sam Altman, still shaking off a pair of terrifying attacks on his home in as many weeks, struck a notably softer note during a recent podcast appearance. “There’s a fear with A.I.,” he acknowledged. “Let’s say it makes all this money and does all the work and whatever. Like, what do I do? What’s my kid going to do?” Greg Brockman, the company’s president, jumped in with a similar observation. Most people outside of Silicon Valley don’t understand how they’re going to benefit from A.I., he said. “And I think that’s something that we’re increasingly realizing that we also have to really spell out.”