By contrast, benefit corporations expand the fiduciary duty of directors to require them to consider non-financial stakeholders as well as the interests of shareholders.[28] This gives directors and officers of mission-driven businesses the legal protection to pursue an additional mission and consider additional stakeholders.[29][30] The enacting state’s benefit corporation statutes are placed within existing state corporation codes so that the codes apply to benefit corporations in every respect except those explicit provisions unique to the benefit corporation form.
Registering as a Public Benefit corporation means that they, the board of directions of the corporation, can’t be sued for failing to maximize shareholder value, and potentially could be challenged if they “fail to consider the effect decisions on stakeholders beyond shareholders.”
It would be interesting if they filed as a certified benefit corporation, B Corp, but I’m not sure what would be at stake if they failed to live up to that standard. Perhaps B Lab (non-profit who certified B Corps), or a similar new entity, should endeavor to create a new status for recognizing safe and responsible creation, handling and governance controls of powerful AIs. With external certifications one worries about Goodhard’s law, and “safety-washing” to take the place of “green-washing”, especially given the (current) non-enforceability of B Corp standards.
Do you find OpenAI’s LP entity more credible? Do you have ideas about another legal structure?
Yes, benefit corporation were created to provide an alternative to “shareholder primacy”, otherwise widely accepted in law and custom, per Wikipedia: Benefit_corporation#Differences_from_traditional_corporations. Further quoting:
Registering as a Public Benefit corporation means that they, the board of directions of the corporation, can’t be sued for failing to maximize shareholder value, and potentially could be challenged if they “fail to consider the effect decisions on stakeholders beyond shareholders.”
It would be interesting if they filed as a certified benefit corporation, B Corp, but I’m not sure what would be at stake if they failed to live up to that standard. Perhaps B Lab (non-profit who certified B Corps), or a similar new entity, should endeavor to create a new status for recognizing safe and responsible creation, handling and governance controls of powerful AIs. With external certifications one worries about Goodhard’s law, and “safety-washing” to take the place of “green-washing”, especially given the (current) non-enforceability of B Corp standards.
Do you find OpenAI’s LP entity more credible? Do you have ideas about another legal structure?