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Recently, a wave of tension swept through the AI world. And no, it’s not a new chatbot going rogue — it’s Silicon Valley turning its fire on the very groups trying to make AI safer.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on the push for AI safety, buckle up, because the latest drama involves powerful tech insiders, whistleblowing nonprofits, legal threats, and a whole lot of finger-pointing.
The Fight: AI Safety Advocates vs. Big Tech Voices
It started when two top tech figures — David Sacks, White House AI and Crypto advisor, and Jason Kwon, Chief Strategy Officer at OpenAI — took to social media to criticize prominent AI safety nonprofits.
The pair accused some of these groups of playing politics and self-interest, rather than altruism. According to them, organizations like Anthropic and Encode aren’t just worried about AI’s potential risks like unemployment or cyberattacks — they’re also allegedly trying to control regulation in their favor and box out smaller startups.
Sacks didn’t hold back. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he specifically called out Anthropic, claiming the company is pushing a “sophisticated regulatory capture strategy” by fear-mongering — essentially saying their AI safety evangelism is a front to throttle competition. His argument? That they’re using alarmist language to push laws like California’s Senate Bill 53 (SB 53), which was just signed into law and puts reporting requirements on large AI companies.
Meanwhile, over at OpenAI, Jason Kwon went even further. His company sent legal subpoenas to seven nonprofit AI safety groups, including Encode. Why? Because they were suspicious of the timing and coordination of the response from these orgs after Elon Musk sued OpenAI. Some, like Encode, even supported Musk’s legal efforts to challenge OpenAI’s shift from nonprofit to for-profit.
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Kwon publicly defended the move, saying it raised transparency issues about possible coordination and funding behind the scenes. Subpoenas were reportedly asking for communications involving Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and even SB 53 support.
OpenAI insists it’s protecting itself from attacks. Critics say it’s silencing them.
A Growing Divide Inside the AI Community
This clash highlights a deeper issue: a split within Silicon Valley and the AI research community itself.
Some at OpenAI are clearly uncomfortable. Joshua Achiam, who leads OpenAI’s mission alignment team, posted on X that issuing these subpoenas to nonprofits “doesn’t seem great.” Translation: not everyone at OpenAI thinks this was a good move.
And many nonprofits are feeling the pressure. Multiple leaders told TechCrunch they’re scared of retaliation and only spoke off the record. The fear is real.
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Brendan Steinhauser, who runs the nonprofit Alliance for Secure AI (which wasn’t subpoenaed), said it flat-out: OpenAI’s actions feel like an attempt to intimidate critics into silence.
Why This Story Matters
This isn’t just Silicon Valley gossip. It speaks to one of the biggest questions in tech right now: How should we build the next generation of AI?
Building smart, safe AI is expensive, slow, and often filled with trade-offs. On one side, you’ve got safety advocates trying to put guardrails in place before it’s too late. On the other, you’ve got powerful tech voices warning that too much red tape could choke off innovation and hurt startups.
There’s massive money on the line, not to mention national economic momentum. Startups are booming. AI is powering everything from customer service to hiring to content creation.
But the need for accountability is growing, too. A 2025 Pew survey showed about half of Americans are more fearful than excited about AI. Another study found that people are especially worried about job loss and deepfakes — not exactly fringe concerns.
And while AI safety groups often focus on catastrophic risks far in the future, it’s the here-and-now realities that resonate most loudly with the public.
So, What Comes Next?
The AI safety movement is gaining ground. New laws like California’s SB 53 prove that policymakers are listening. But that momentum is running straight into the resistance of tech heavyweights who see regulation as a threat.
If this week’s uproar tells us anything, it’s that the fight over how — and who — gets to shape the future of AI isn’t cooling down anytime soon.
One thing’s for sure: The battle lines are drawn, and they run right through the heart of Silicon Valley.
