He has a simple, but actually complicated task: boost AI hype, but reduce the competition, ESPECIALLY on the side of open source Chinese models.

That's the sole reason for "AI is cool, but dangerous, and we must control it" and "We must break free from China" rhetoric. He is tasked to make AI grow as a proprietary technology, so that there's any chance at all to recoup the immense investment that was made. If open, local LLMs maintain their position, OpenAI cannot leverage its own position to demand exorbitant prices for access to ChatGPT - and that is the key condition to recoup all of the investments that were made.