OpenAI Recruits AI Legend and Trump Policy Insider

OpenAI is adding major talent ahead of its IPO, hiring Google DeepMind veteran Noam Shazeer and former Trump White House AI official Dean Ball. Shazeer, a co-author of the landmark 2017 Transformer paper and ex-Character AI founder, departed Google after a $2.7 billion rehiring deal. Ball will lead a new Strategic Futures team reporting to Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon, focusing on catastrophic risk, AI governance, and federal government relations. The hire comes as rival Anthropic faces a Trump-ordered export ban on its latest models, highlighting OpenAI's apparent effort to secure political influence ahead of going public.