Catherine Bracey

We worked together back in the day and then kind of went on a touch with each other for a few years.

And then when I was writing a book about venture capital, I was really interested in OpenAI's nonprofit model.

And Sam had been very explicit that the reason they founded OpenAI as a nonprofit was to

put the technology at arm's length from investors because they knew investors would exploit it in a way that would make this technology, which they thought was very dangerous, actually live up to that potential danger.

And so I wanted to talk to him about the decision-making process behind that.

And he was very forthcoming about that being, yes, the explicit reason why OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit.

And they put a lot of thought and capacity and energy into creating this governance structure that would protect the technology from failure.

the whims of investors, the incentives of investors, the imperatives that investors put on technology companies.

And a few months later, I saw that all come crashing down.

And that has really stuck with me and informs a lot of the work that we're doing today to ensure that the nonprofit maintains the mission that it started out with.

Disappointment, I would say, was my initial reaction.

And then the secondary response was, well, what can we do about this?

And many of us kind of came together into this coalition that really started asking questions about the responsibility of the nonprofit and the responsibility of the Attorney General of California to enforce nonprofit law.

And things kind of went from there.

Essentially, you know, I run a nonprofit in the tax code.

That means that, you know, my organization does not need to pay taxes.

But in return for that tax exemption, we are required to operate in service of a public service mission.

Our mission is to ensure that the tech industry is creating opportunity for everybody.

OpenAI's nonprofit mission is to ensure that AI develops for the benefit of all of humanity.

And legally, Sam Altman is required to prioritize technology.