Former OpenAI staffer says a separate think tank can protect honest internal debate
jd_pressman · x · 2026-07-21
A former OpenAI staffer says the usual fix for internal speech constraints is to fund a separate think tank that sits far enough from the parent company that people can say what they actually think.
The reply is framed around the Dean Ball open-source discourse and notes that, in the author’s experience at OpenAI, leadership and comms did not pressure them to post particular views—though they may have had unusual freedom because of seniority and a public profile.
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