George Osborne, the former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer now leading OpenAI’s government outreach, has a message for world leaders: the fear of missing out on artificial intelligence is real, and it’s justified.
Speaking at SXSW London on June 5, 2026, Osborne told CNBC that most governments he speaks with are experiencing genuine FOMO about AI adoption. The twist is that their anxiety comes paired with legitimate, hard questions about how to actually control the technology once they embrace it.
From Downing Street to Sam Altman’s org chart
Osborne joined OpenAI in December 2025 to lead a program called OpenAI for Countries, which has since engaged with more than 50 governments worldwide. The initiative’s stated goals are straightforward: build AI infrastructure, improve AI literacy, and align the technology’s deployment with democratic values.
Osborne has been framing the global AI race not just as an economic contest but as an ideological one, pitting democratic nations against authoritarian regimes in a competition for technological supremacy. His warning, articulated as early as February 2026, is blunt: countries that neglect to embrace AI risk becoming “weaker and poorer.”
