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The Atlantic ·Future-gazing

OpenAI Wants to Talk About <em>The Federalist Papers</em>

by Matteo Wong

Published 2026-09-04 13:01:00-04:00

If machines can fight wars and pay taxes, why would a government listen to its citizens?

0:00 / 11:29 · Narrator Charon

Context

When governments no longer need citizens to fight wars or fund the state, why would they listen to them? That is the question driving OpenAI’s new Strategic Futures team. In this 4 September 2026 interview from The Atlantic, Matteo Wong presses the team's leader, Dean Ball, on the political threat of artificial intelligence. The exchange focuses on how a massive concentration of machine power could upend basic rights. It asks what kind of new institutions society might need to invent just to keep human beings at the table.

Show notes

An interview with Dean Ball, the head of OpenAI's Strategic Futures team, about how advanced artificial intelligence could concentrate political and economic power. The conversation covers the risk of AI replacing human labor to the point that governments no longer need their citizens, and proposes a new federal institution to control the speed of AI development. It also addresses criticisms of the tech industry's track record on wealth distribution.

Read on The Atlantic →