OpenAI hires former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll as its national security counselor
OpenAI announced on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, that Dan Driscoll, the former Secretary of the Army, is joining as Senior Counselor for National Security Modernization, a move first reported by the Financial Times.
AI labs used to keep the Pentagon at arm's length; now they hire its former leaders by title. Driscoll's pitch, AI that cuts paperwork and gets answers to soldiers faster, is the friendly version. The harder questions, about procurement, revolving doors and who decides how these models get used in conflict, just walked into OpenAI's office with him.
Dan Driscoll's title is Senior Counselor for National Security Modernization. OpenAI says the role is new. He will work with the company's senior leadership and with outside partners on how advanced AI can strengthen national security and cyber security, with a particular focus on working with U.S. allies on using it responsibly. Those lines are OpenAI's.
OpenAI says he will work with governments, industry, academia, and allied institutions on "practical modernization initiatives" that support what it calls democratic AI, and that he will help OpenAI's own teams understand what national security institutions need in the field. Democratic AI is OpenAI's name for the adoption it wants democracies to spread. Those lines are OpenAI's.
OpenAI ties the hire to work it is already doing with allies on cyber resilience under a program it calls Daybreak. Cyber resilience means keeping going, and recovering, when computer systems are attacked. That link is OpenAI's.
Driscoll was the 26th Secretary of the Army. In that job he oversaw nearly one million Active, Guard, and Reserve soldiers and more than 265,000 Army civilians, and he pushed to field new technology faster and to reform acquisition, which is how the Army buys things. He is a former Army officer and has worked in law and in the private sector. In his own words he notes that he was most recently Secretary of the Army and Acting Director of the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Those lines are OpenAI's and his.
Dan Driscoll said: "The people who serve deserve the very best tools we can put in their hands. National security requirements are changing faster than at any time in the past fifty years." Sam Altman said: "The US has an extraordinary opportunity to work with other countries to spread the adoption of democratic AI and I'm excited to welcome Dan Driscoll to OpenAI to strengthen American leadership and help us do that." Those quotations are theirs.
The picture is the official U.S. Army portrait of Dan Driscoll as the 26th Secretary of the Army. He is in a dark suit and a red tie, with the U.S. flag and the Army flag behind him. The credit is the U.S. Army, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
In plain terms, OpenAI hired the former Army secretary into a new job advising the company and its partners on national security and cyber security, especially with U.S. allies. OpenAI links the hire to its Daybreak work. The announcement is the company's.