TRACK AI COMMS

“OpenAI has just acquired the popular tech show TBPN, the Technology Business Programming Network. This is OpenAI's first big move into owning a media company, but this isn't a classic media company, right? They're not buying the New York Times, or, you know, the Wall Street Journal or something. They're buying kind of one of these up-and-coming tech shows that has only been around for 18 months.”

“They said that their team is still going to have quote, run their program, choose their guests and make their own editorial decisions. So even if OpenAI owns them, they're allowed to say whatever they want. I was actually reading some tweets by the founders, and they were like, look, sometimes we've been critical of OpenAI, and we hope to still be critical of them and other people in the future.”

“OpenAI right now is planning to kind of go beyond just owning the show. They're also going to tap the founders, what they said, they're, quote, amazing comms and marketing instincts. So I think beyond just like, hey, we want to get like this kind of YouTube channel that does AI news, they want to grab those founders and they want to get their communications and their communications instincts.”

“I think once all this is finalized, TBPN is going to sit under OpenAI's strategy team. They're going to report to Leon, who's a long time political strategist. He's often described as a practitioner of the quote, political dark arts. Lehman also played a big role in shaping a lot of the different political narratives inside of Washington, including the crypto industry SuperPAC, FairShake.”

“She basically pointed out that TBPN's style is really uniquely suited for a company like OpenAI, where quote, the standard communications playbook just doesn't apply. So I think like if you kind of read between the lines there, basically they're saying traditional PR isn't enough for OpenAI. It's one of these really consequential technologies shaping what's happening.”