OpenAI is steadily embedding itself within the U.S. government, expanding its influence over national security, policymaking, and defense contracts. In its latest move, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gave government leaders and policy experts a preview of upcoming AI technology during an off-the-record demonstration near Capitol Hill on Thursday, according to the Axios report.
The Briefing
The briefing aimed to highlight AI’s economic potential and prepare U.S. policymakers for its next wave of advancements. It included a demonstration of OpenAI’s upcoming AI agent technology, slated for release in the first quarter of this year.
Speaking about his company’s new technology, which can autonomously complete real-world tasks, Altman predicted, “My intuition would be that … these things are [a] single-digit percent of the economic value we will pass to the U.S. economy.”
Altman highlighted the new technology’s potential for “[supporting] science, education, health and government services,” per the report.
The briefing drew a range of high-profile policymakers and officials, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, White House AI adviser Sriram Krishnan, former Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and former House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), among others. Their presence underscored the broad interest in AI’s potential impact on government and the economy.
What Is AI Agent?
The core of OpenAI’s new technology, called Operator, revolves around agentic AI. This is a system capable of autonomously performing multi-step tasks, interacting with software tools, and making decisions based on contextual information. Unlike traditional AI chatbots, these agents can:
- Plan and execute tasks without human supervision
- Access and analyze real-time data to make informed decisions
- Integrate with enterprise software and government databases
- Automate workflows in complex domains such as healthcare, education, and security.
Altman’s presentation showcased how these agents could revolutionize government operations, focusing on improving efficiency. “This is going to be a big, big efficiency gain,” he said.
OpenAI’s Growing Role in Government
The company has been actively collaborating with government agencies to integrate advanced AI solutions into various operations, enhancing efficiency, decision-making, and public service delivery.
ChatGPT Gov
In January, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Gov, a specialized version of its ChatGPT model designed specifically for U.S. government agencies. This platform allows agencies to securely access OpenAI’s advanced models, such as GPT-4, within their own Microsoft Azure cloud environments. Features of ChatGPT Gov include saved conversations, custom GPT development, and an administrative console for IT management. This initiative aims to assist government entities in effectively handling non-public sensitive data and improving service delivery.
National Security and Defense
OpenAI has expanded its focus to include national security applications. Last December, the company partnered with Anduril, a defense technology firm, to supply AI capabilities to the U.S. military. Per a Wired report, this collaboration aims to improve systems used for air defense, enabling military operators to make faster and more accurate decisions in high-pressure situations. For instance, military operators use OpenAI’s models to assess drone threats more efficiently, gaining critical information while enhancing their safety.
New Consortium
OpenAI is reportedly in talks to join Palantir and Anduril in a new AI-powered defense consortium aimed at competing with traditional military contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The group — which may also include Elon Musk’s SpaceX — seeks to secure U.S. defense contracts with AI-driven autonomous warfare and surveillance solutions.
Palantir, led by Trump ally Peter Thiel, has deep ties to the CIA, DOD, and U.S. intelligence agencies, supplying data analytics and AI tools for various military and national-security operations. A collaboration with OpenAI could significantly expand AI’s role in defense, intelligence, and security infrastructure.
The Intelligence Age — or a Path to Neo-Feudalism?
Altman envisions artificial intelligence as the catalyst for a new epoch — “The Intelligence Age” — comparable in scale to the Industrial Revolution. His vision is one of unparalleled prosperity, where AI amplifies human capabilities, solves the world’s toughest problems, and ushers in an era of abundance and innovation.
But beneath Altman’s utopian rhetoric lies a deeper structural shift in power dynamics, one that raises a fundamental question: Will AI liberate humanity, or will it create a new ruling class — one that owns the infrastructure of intelligence itself?
A Revolution for Whom?
Altman paints a future where AI “fixes the climate,” builds space colonies, and unlocks the secrets of physics. He envisions AI tutors educating children in every language and AI doctors revolutionizing healthcare. But there is little reason to believe these benefits will be equally distributed.
As Steve Bannon soundly warned, “The new models will gut the workforce — especially entry-level, where young people start.”
With its expanding capabilities, AI is now poised to replace mid-level professionals as well. Rather than ushering in universal prosperity, this shift will further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a select elite while dismantling the middle class. Those with capital will reap the benefits of AI-driven efficiency, while millions of workers risk being left behind.
This scenario echoes Yuval Noah Harari’s vision, where a technological elite controls AI-driven industries, while the masses — the so-called useless class — are rendered economically obsolete.
From Utopia to Social Control
Further, Altman’s grand promises ignore another aspect of a darker reality: AI’s potential as a tool for control rather than empowerment. The same AI super-agents that Altman claims will “reindustrialize” America could just as easily be used to track, censor, and regulate human behavior at an unprecedented scale. That includes the following:
- Automated decision-making could eliminate human oversight from governance, banking, and law enforcement.
- AI-powered surveillance could give governments and corporations omnipresent control over citizens.
- Algorithmic control over information could reshape public opinion, suppress dissent, and reinforce power structures.
What Altman calls “massive prosperity” may, in reality, be a concentration of power unlike anything the world has seen — a scenario where AI doesn’t liberate people, but subjugates them.
The Real Stakes
As OpenAI prepares to sell its newest tech to the government and Congress moves toward AI infrastructure bills, we must ask: Who will truly benefit from this “Intelligence Age?”
Technocrats pushing this future paint AI as a neutral tool that will enhance human potential. But beneath this narrative lies a deeper ideology — one rooted in eugenics and transhumanism, where technology becomes the gatekeeper of existence, creating the sharp divide between the digital overlords and a redundant underclass. In a world where AI access is controlled by a select few, those who own and operate these systems will dictate the rules of society itself.
The real question isn’t how much prosperity AI can create — it’s who gets to control it, to what ends, and at what cost to freedom.
