---
category: AI & Effective Altruism
created: 2026-09-23
relations:
- end: 2023-11
  fn: 2
  role: independent director of the nonprofit board
  type: member_of
  with: '[[OpenAI]]'
- fn: 1
  role: adjunct senior management scientist
  start: 2023
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[Rand Corporation]]'
- fn: 1
  role: director of an innovation lab
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[Singularity University]]'
- fn: 1
  type: founded
  with: '[[Fellow Robots]]'
- fn: 1
  type: founded
  with: '[[GeoSim Systems]]'
- end: 2022
  fn: 1
  role: chief executive officer
  type: head_of
  with: '[[GeoSim Systems]]'
- fn: 1
  role: U.K. board of the Effective Ventures Foundation
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Effective Ventures]]'
- fn: 1
  role: advisory board
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Center for the Governance of AI]]'
- fn: 1
  type: spouse_of
  with: '[[Joseph Gordon-Levitt]]'
summary: Robotics and geospatial entrepreneur, RAND adjunct and UK board member of
  Effective Ventures, who as an OpenAI director voted in November 2023 to remove Sam
  Altman and then left the board.
tags:
- Person
- OpenAI
- EffectiveAltruism
- RAND
- Robotics
updated: 2026-09-23
---

Tasha McCauley became an adjunct senior management scientist at the [RAND Corporation](/organizations/rand-corporation/) in 2023. She had earlier directed an innovation lab at Singularity University, co-founded the robotics startup Fellow Robots with a colleague from there, and then co-founded GeoSim Systems, a geospatial technology company, where she was chief executive until 2022.[^1]

With her husband, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, she signed the Asilomar AI Principles, 23 principles of AI governance published in 2017, which [Sam Altman](/people/sam-altman/), [Ilya Sutskever](/people/ilya-sutskever/) and [Elon Musk](/people/elon-musk/) also signed. She sat on the advisory board of the Center for the Governance of AI with [Helen Toner](/people/helen-toner/), and on the U.K. board of the [Effective Ventures Foundation](/organizations/effective-ventures/), the parent organization of the Centre for Effective Altruism.[^1]

### OpenAI

McCauley was one of the independent directors of the nonprofit board of [OpenAI](/organizations/openai/) which, on November 17, 2023, announced that Altman would leave as chief executive after "a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities." The company listed its board that day as "OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, independent directors Quora CEO [Adam D'Angelo](/people/adam-dangelo/), technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and [Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology](/organizations/center-for-security-and-emerging-technology/)'s Helen Toner."[^2] OpenAI directors, according to the company's own description, held no equity and received no other compensation.[^1]

On November 29, 2023, Altman returned as chief executive with a new initial board of [Bret Taylor](/people/bret-taylor/), Larry Summers and D'Angelo. He wrote that he was "grateful to Adam, Tasha, and Helen for working with us to come to this solution that best serves the mission," and "sincerely thankful to Helen and Tasha for investing a huge amount of effort in this process." McCauley, Toner and Sutskever left the board; D'Angelo stayed.[^3]

### The Cruz Letter

On September 13, 2024, Senator [Ted Cruz](/people/ted-cruz/), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, wrote to RAND's president [Jason Matheny](/people/jason-matheny/) about RAND's part in drafting the AI executive order of 2023. "RAND has both personal and financial connections to incumbent AI companies like [Anthropic](/organizations/anthropic/) and OpenAI," he wrote. "For instance, you are one of five members on Anthropic's '[Long-Term Benefit Trust](/organizations/long-term-benefit-trust/),' which oversees the AI company." McCauley, he continued, was "an adjunct senior management scientist at RAND and effective altruism advocate" who had "just left OpenAI's board last November." He added: "RAND is also connected with [Open Philanthropy](/organizations/open-philanthropy/), the charitable arm of these AI companies. Last year, Open Philanthropy gave RAND $16 million to advance its 'work on potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence.'"[^4]

[^1]: Konrad, Alex, and Sarah Emerson. "These Are The People That Fired OpenAI CEO Sam Altman." *Forbes,* November 17, 2023, archived November 18, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20231118075941/https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/11/17/these-are-the-people-that-fired-openai-ceo-sam-altman/
[^2]: OpenAI. "OpenAI announces leadership transition." November 17, 2023, archived November 17, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20231117210540/https://openai.com/blog/openai-announces-leadership-transition
[^3]: OpenAI. "Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board." November 29, 2023, archived November 30, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20231130020514/https://openai.com/blog/sam-altman-returns-as-ceo-openai-has-a-new-initial-board
[^4]: Cruz, Ted. Letter to Jason Matheny, President and CEO, RAND Corporation, September 13, 2024, U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/AF082319-C877-47CC-95F6-8240EE6A105D