OpenAI establishes new Strategic Futures team: how to prevent power concentration in the AI era

OpenAI has established the Strategic Futures team and launched the AI Futures blog, with the first article written by Dean Ball, focusing on the risk of power concentration brought by AI. The article argues that political and military power have historically relied on human labor and broad cooperation, but autonomous systems and machine intelligence may allow states to project force and generate revenue without relying on soldiers, police, or taxation, and the public may lose their seat at the negotiating table. The team argues that this structural risk is the most significant and difficult-to-address category in AI safety and policy, and that institutional constraints like "parchment barriers" alone are insufficient to prevent excessive power concentration.