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by mlinksva 3710 days ago
> OpenAI is not a charity.

https://backchannel.com/how-elon-musk-and-y-combinator-plan-... includes quote from Musk:

> And as a result of a number of conversations, we came to the conclusion that having a 501c3, a non-profit, with no obligation to maximize profitability, would probably be a good thing to do.

A 501c3 is a charity. Is "not a charity" inaccurate, or did OpenAI decide on some other organizational form, perhaps a trade association?

1 comments

This may help: Public Charity vs. Private Foundation [1]

Generally, I think charities are understood to use most of their funds to directly support the people in need rather than spending money on administration of the charity.

By the way, non-profits are not viewed as inherently good by those within the sector,

> Charity non-profits face many of the same challenges of corporate governance which face large, publicly traded corporations. Fundamentally, the challenges arise from the "agency problem" - the fact that the management which controls the charity is necessarily different from the people who the charity is designed to benefit [2]

[1] https://www.501c3.org/public-charity-vs-private-foundation/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_non-profit_laws#...