No. 122: OpenAI Becomes a PBC

We have another year of social impact under our belts, and it's time to set our sights on 2025. How do we want to make a difference this year? Maybe it's a career change to something more impactful, a new volunteering opportunity in your community, or a chance to learn more about an issue that resonates with you. Whatever it is, let's get down to business – I'd love to hear about any goals you have for this year.

This week, I'm focusing on a governance change at OpenAI this year. You may remember from No. 71: Social impact upends an AI darling that governance issues led to the temporary ouster of CEO Sam Altman and highlighted the tension between OpenAI's nonprofit and for-profit entities.

To make a long story short, the nonprofit board fired the CEO after concluding he was not being transparent with them, thereby hampering its ability to provide oversight. They ultimately backtracked, followed by a series of resignations and a board shuffle, after Microsoft, other major investors, and the company's own employees intervened.

Microsoft signaled that a new governance structure was needed, so the news this week comes as little surprise. At the time, it seemed to me that future profitability had outweighed OpenAI's mission to build artificial general intelligence that benefits all of humanity.

I also noted that one of OpenAI's main competitors, Anthropic, was incorporated as a public benefit corporation – this means that they wrote their mission into their Articles of Incorporation to provide legal protection to balance purpose and profit. Anthropic also established a trust to provide additional accountability to its stated social impact. Since then, other groups, like B Lab's Andrew Kassoy, have pressured OpenAI to adopt similar guardrails.

I am somewhat skeptical about OpenAI's proposal: the nonprofit will effectively become a shareholder in the for-profit PBC, meaning the nonprofit benefits more when the for-profit makes more money.

This isn't a bad approach in general – other companies do more good when they scale, like Bombas making more donations or Warby Parker increasing contributions to its foundation – but it creates a conflict of interest in the event that the mission isn't upheld. From what I can tell, this change lacks any sort of guardrails like the ones at Anthropic or that Mr. Kassoy proposed in his opinion piece in the NYT.

Any designation of social impact, be it Fair Trade, Certified B Corp, public benefit corporation, and so forth, gets its value from the collective reputation of the brands that bear its marks. Will incorporating as a PBC become something of a greenwashing technique? Let's hope not – One Work is a public benefit corporation, too.

~ Greg

Job of the week

It's internship season once again, and this one at Amplify Education sticks out amongst the rest. You'll get to work on equity and inclusion efforts, including engaging Amplify's employee resource groups. If you care about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, this is a great first job – it's even remote, so you wouldn't necessarily need to move temporarily for the internship. You can find all of the details here.

Internships in general are placed early in the year – not just at Amplify – so be sure to get those applications out soon if you're still looking to make a difference this summer!

Amplify has other opportunities for current professionals as well. You can check out the full listing on their careers page.

Community roundup

• The Popemobile has gone electric. Mercedes-Benz produced the new vehicle as part of the Vatican's efforts to make all of its vehicles emissions-free by 2030. (Inside Climate News)
• Norway has paused plans for deep sea mining in the Arctic Ocean after protests from local environmental groups and the fishing industry. (Grist)
• Walmart is continuing to invest in its partnership with Nexamp to build an additional 31 community solar farms. (Electrek)
• As for the other side of Walmart...new research shows that when Walmart comes into a community, it tends to make the community poorer. Specifically, poverty increases by 8% compared to not having a Walmart, even after accounting for lower prices to offset lower wages. (The Atlantic)
• Scientists are researching how to create "digital twins" of human organs. The digital twins are replicas of the real thing, and they could be used to test out new treatments or practice surgeries in advance. (MIT Technology Review)
• The United States Forest Service is under a hiring freeze that prevents them from hiring seasonal workers who help with reforestation and wildfire mitigation, among other activities. (Inside Climate News)

Hot job opportunities

• Director of Product – ParentSquare – Santa Barbara, CA
• Junior Analyst, Measurement, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) – Results for America – Remote
• Accounts Payable Specialist – Coates Kokes – Portland, OR
• Senior Account Executive – Noodle – Troy, NY
• Program Manager – unspun – Emeryville, CA
• Lead, Product and Content Marketing – IXL Learning – Remote
• Process Development Engineer – Hyfé Foods – San Francisco, CA
• Senior EHS Specialist – Twelve – Alameda or Berkeley, CA
• Director of Product Management – Duolingo – New York, NY
• Robotics Deployment Engineer – Zordi – Vineland, NJ

Resource of the week

I'm always deep in thought at the end of the year, trying to figure out where I should be headed in the future. Those conversations aren't easy to have with yourself, and if you're reevaluating your work, it can be particularly daunting. Part of what inspired me to start this newsletter in the first place is that work can be a source of purpose in one's life, and finding purpose is much, much more difficult than it sounds.

I myself have been reading through the career guide on 80,000 Hours, which you may remember for their social impact job board. Even if you aren't thinking of changing jobs this year, it's worth a read. I particularly like their perspective on how to measure social impact.

Take a moment to consider whether your current role has these six items that make for a "dream job":

1. Engaging work that lets you enter a state of flow (freedom, variety, clear tasks, feedback).
2. Work that helps others.
3. Work you’re good at.
4. Supportive colleagues.
5. No major negatives, like long hours or unfair pay.
6. A job that fits your personal life.

If your role checks those boxes, you're probably on the right track. If not, this guide will help you determine where to focus your job search efforts.

Test your knowledge

It's been a minute, but I challenged you to identify the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. Did you know it was Marie Curie who won for Physics in 1903?

I was inspired by a conversation I had a few weeks ago when I learned about her personal items: Curie's personal effects are so irradiated – no kidding, that's present tense – that they are stored in lead containers. Her coffin was actually lined with lead as well.

For this week, we turn to landmark legislation. As we enter year 25 of the new century – insane, I know – I'm often reminded by how much has changed in the last 100 years, particularly on social issues. Things you'd think would have been in place a lot sooner are surprisingly recent:

In what decade was the Americans with Disabilities Act signed?

Email me your guess, and I'll send one lucky winner a couple of One Work stickers!

I am working on reducing the number of stressors in my life, and right now uncertainty is top of the list. Time to set some clear goals. You can find me on LinkedIn and Threads.