The former head of the NSA joins the OpenAI board

OpenAI has appointed Paul M. Nakasone, a retired US Army general and former head of the National Security Agency (NSA), to its board of directors. – the company announced on Thursday.

Nakasone who was nominated to head the NSA Former President Donald Trump, directed the agency from 2018 until February this year. Before Nakasone left the NSA, he wrote and OP-ED supports the renewal of Art. 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a surveillance program that was ultimately reauthorized by Congress in April.

OpenAI says Nakasone will join the Safety and Security Committee, which was announced in May and is led by CEO Sam Altman, “which will be a priority.” Nakasone will also “support OpenAI’s efforts to better understand how artificial intelligence can be used to strengthen cybersecurity by quickly detecting and responding to cybersecurity threats.”

Recent security-related departures at OpenAI include co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who played a key role in Sam Altman’s November firing and eventual firing, and Jan Leike, who said on x that “safety culture and processes have taken to shiny products.”

“Artificial intelligence has the potential to have a tremendous positive impact on people’s lives, but it will only be able to realize this potential if these innovations are safely built and deployed,” board chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement. “General Nakasone’s unparalleled experience in areas such as cybersecurity will help OpenAI achieve its mission to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity.”