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Technology

Following Noam Shazeer, OpenAI Hires Former Trump AI Advisor Dean Ball to Lead AI Policy

me.sumitji@gmail.com 19 Jun 2026 1 hour ago

It has been a busy week for OpenAI. The AI startup led by Sam Altman recently recruited prominent AI engineer Noam Shazeer from Google—a company that had previously paid him more than $2 billion for his services. Now, OpenAI is bringing on AI expert Dean Ball. Ball played a crucial role in shaping the Trump administration's initial AI policies and will lead the company's AI policy initiatives.

Dean Ball announced his move to OpenAI The AI expert stated that he would lead a new division within the company. Ball said: "On July 6, I will join OpenAI to lead a new team called Strategic Futures." The expert revealed that his team would be responsible for defining OpenAI's AI policy. Ball added: "Our mission will be to help company leadership shape policies regarding cutting-edge AI. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done, and I am excited to get started."

I am pleased and honored to announce that, on July 6, I'll be joining @OpenAI as leader of a new team called Strategic Futures. Our mandate will be to help the company's leadership shape frontier AI policy. There is a ton of work to do, and I'm excited to get started. pic.twitter.com/hqoNbOEYbN — Dean W. Ball (@deanwball)

June 18, 2026

Dean Ball announced his move to OpenAI on X. OpenAI now has a former Trump AI advisor on board Dean Ball’s appointment brings a policy leader to OpenAI with Washington experience and a public profile as a frequent writer on AI policy. Ball has also been highly critical of both the AI industry and the government. He told Axios that the role represented an opportunity to help create "a new kind of institution under the sun." Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s Chief Strategy Officer, noted that Ball has spent a great deal of time thinking about risks, governance, cutting-edge policy issues, and "what comes next." This comes at a time when Anthropic, the company's main rival, is facing a difficult situation with the White House. Recently, the U.S. government banned the use of Anthropic’s Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models by all foreign nationals, including the company's own employees. Since then, Anthropic has blocked access for all users. In short, at a time when Anthropic appears to be struggling to manage its relationship with the U.S. government, OpenAI has secured a key figure who worked closely with the White House. Dean is expected to report to Jason Kwon.

In a blog post, Dean Ball wrote that the first phase of AI governance—spanning roughly from November 2022 to late 2025 or early 2026—had been "easy mode." Now, in his view, a more complex phase has begun, characterized by greater political stakes and higher risks.

Who is Dean Ball?

Dean Ball served as a senior policy advisor on AI and emerging technologies at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and was the lead author of the AI Action Plan released by the White House last summer. He left the administration shortly after the document's publication and joined the Foundation for American Innovation—a conservative-leaning tech think tank—as a senior fellow. While Dean has maintained contact with the White House, in recent months he has also been critical of the conflict between the Trump administration and Anthropic. This includes the Pentagon's decision to label the company a supply-chain risk and the White House's decision last week to impose export restrictions on Anthropic’s Mythos and Fable models. Before working at the White House, Ball was a researcher at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a program manager at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He also held positions at the Manhattan Institute and oversaw a fellowship program at the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation.

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