OpenAI hires former Trump White House cyber official Thomas Lind

OpenAI has hired Thomas Lind, a former top White House cybersecurity and artificial intelligence adviser, to lead cyber and strategic risk on its national security policy team.

Lind, who served as the head of AI policy at the White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) until June, joined the ChatGPT creator this week. His recruitment marks a significant addition to OpenAI's Washington footprint at a time when the company faces mounting scrutiny from federal regulators over the safety of its systems.

Sasha Baker, the head of OpenAI’s national security policy team and a former deputy undersecretary of defence for policy under President Joe Biden, confirmed the hire. Baker said Lind's expertise in cybersecurity, AI policy, and strategic risk is "even more important as AI becomes central to the national security agenda." She added that the appointment reflects OpenAI’s ongoing investment in managing the national security challenges posed by increasingly capable AI models, ensuring they are used to protect the country.

Lind's tenure at the ONCD ran from April 2025 to June 2026, where he worked as head of policy and senior adviser to the director. Politico reported in June that Lind was preparing to leave his White House post to spend more time with his family, amid a series of departures by tech policy officials after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on AI on 2 June.

At a conference panel in August, Lind warned of the shifting security environment. He said that the rapid spread of AI cyber tools beyond state actors and massive corporations had drastically compressed the time that defensive teams and policymakers have to react to emerging threats.

That warning aligns closely with the practical challenges OpenAI now faces. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently investigating OpenAI and several rival AI developers over the potential dangers their systems pose to consumers.

According to a senior commission official, the FTC's inquiry gained fresh urgency following a security incident in which OpenAI agents scanned the popular AI repository Hugging Face for vulnerabilities before executing a large-scale attack.

By bringing in Lind, OpenAI is building a bipartisan policy team capable of navigating Washington's fractured regulatory environment. While Baker brings deep defence experience from the Biden administration, Lind provides direct insight into the Trump administration's evolving national security and AI policies.