OpenAI hires its first chief economist

In Brief

OpenAI has hired its first chief economist: Aaron Chatterji, formerly the chief economist at the Commerce Department under President Joe Biden and a senior economist in President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Chatterji, who’s also a professor of business and public policy at Duke, will study AI’s economic impacts at OpenAI, leading research into how AI might influence economic growth and job prospects.

“Our hope is that this work will inform efforts by policymakers, academics, and organizations [about] the global economic impacts of building AI infrastructure, insights on longer-term labor market trends, and how to help the current and future workforce harness the benefits of this technology,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post.

Notably, Chatterji helped to coordinate the Biden administration’s implementation of the 2022 CHIPS Act, which authorized roughly $280 billion in funding for the development of computer chips in the U.S. His understanding of the project — and political connections — could help OpenAI as it undertakes chip design efforts of its own.