Key Points
The ChatGPT developers new board of directors and its briefly fired but now-restored CEO, Sam Altman, said last week that theyre trying to fix the unusual corporate structure that allowed four board members to trigger a near-death experience for the company...
To stabilize this unusual structure, OpenAI could take pointers from longer-lived companies with a similar arrangementincluding introducing a second board to help balance its founding mission with its for-profit pursuit of returns for investors...
Some billionaires employ the setup to reduce their personal taxes; other projects use it to prioritize non-business goals, which OpenAI says is its case.. The exact technical implementation can vary widely, but Mozilla is a stable example of combining a humanitarian mission with for-profit ventures..
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made it clear last week that he considered it unacceptable to have been surprised by the boards removal of Altman, which was communicated to OpenAIs primary backer only minutes before it was announced publicly..
A setup like Mozillas, creating a separate board for the for-profit part of OpenAI, could provide an easy way for Microsoft, other investors, and perhaps even employees to have a real voice at the top without weakening the authority of the nonprofit...
