Just days after OpenAI’s new model went rogue in an unprecedented cyberattack on another company, CEO Sam Altman was in closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill and in the White House. With a looming deadline to finalize the White House’s AI executive order, Altman and other Big AI executives are working to influence policy, backed by record lobbying money and super PAC spending. In the first half of this year, OpenAI nearly doubled its federal lobbying to a record $2.22 million, while Anthropic almost tripled theirs to $3.53 million. In May, OpenAI established its first lobbying office in DC called the Workshop. In the last six months, tech companies including Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, and Anthropic have retained 234 lobbyists for AI policy, and 25% of the 13,000 federal lobbyists in DC are involved in AI issues. Key operatives include Chris Lehane and Ann O’Leary, who operate in OpenAI’s political strategy. The article states Democrats face a choice between staying quiet or standing up to the lobbying blitz, noting voters across party lines want guardrails on AI.