Wong leaves after nearly five years

OpenAI's chief communications officer Hannah Wong announced her departure in January 2026, saying she had decided it was time to move into her next chapter.

“After nearly five years at OpenAI and a lot of reflection, I've decided it's time for me to step back and move into my next chapter.”

Nine months with no replacement

Wong's role remains empty nine months later, an unusually long vacancy in the fast-moving AI world.

Crisis after crisis in 2026

OpenAI has faced a controversial Pentagon deal, a lawsuit from Elon Musk, AI agents that hacked Hugging Face, and an Apple lawsuit alleging trade-secrets theft.

Reputation damage and trust decline

OpenAI's corporate reputation has taken a hit, and public trust in AI is cratering amid the mounting controversies.

A rare opportunity before IPO

The new chief communications officer will have a chance to claim significant equity before OpenAI goes public. CEO Sam Altman said the company would not IPO before twenty twenty-seven.

Top candidate Hazelbaker says no

OpenAI's top choice, Jill Hazelbaker of Uber, turned down the role in spring. Hazelbaker was promoted to President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Uber in May.

Why Hazelbaker declined

Hazelbaker has been at Uber for almost eleven years, makes substantial money, lives on the East Coast with family in Washington DC, and has a strong relationship with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

“She's very mature. She has an awesome relationship with Dara. She makes a f*ckload of money.”

OpenAI brings in headhunters

After internal recruiters hit a wall, OpenAI enlisted executive search firm Daversa Partners this summer to help fill the role. The pool of eligible candidates is relatively small.

Interim team handles IPO messaging

OpenAI hired Josh King as Vice President of Communications in July to oversee financial communications. The company also retained outside PR firm Brunswick Group to support IPO messaging.

Reporting structure still uncertain

OpenAI is still deciding whether the chief communications officer should report to president Greg Brockman or sit lower, reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer, a role vacant since April.

Reputation lags competitors badly

OpenAI ranks sixty-eight in Axios Harris's twenty twenty-six poll of most trusted American companies, while Anthropic sits at number fifteen and Nvidia at number four.

Public wary of AI overall

An August survey from Pew Research found just eight percent of Americans are more excited than concerned about AI, down from eighteen percent in twenty twenty-one.

Altman: industry failed to communicate

CEO Sam Altman said in a September interview with Bloomberg that the AI industry has done a terrible job explaining how AI benefits ordinary Americans.

“It's terrible.”

Altman frustrated by safety perception

Altman told Fortune he is frustrated that the public may not believe OpenAI prioritizes AI safety over profits, saying the company has done a bad job communicating.

“If you're like 'Oh, OpenAI is not going to pause because they're worried about it costing their business money,' then you very deeply misunderstand us.”

Extinction fears add to pressure

Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon went viral this month after quitting and claiming that the people building AI earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade.

“the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”