OpenAI picks labor icon Dolores Huerta and other philanthropy advisers
as it moves toward for-profit
[April 17, 2025] By
MATT O'BRIEN
OpenAI has named labor leader Dolores Huerta and three others to a
temporary advisory board that will help guide the artificial
intelligence company's philanthropy as it attempts to shift itself into
a for-profit business.
Huerta, who turned 95 last week, formed the first farmworkers union with
Cesar Chavez in the early 1960s and will now voice her ideas on the
direction of philanthropic initiatives that OpenAI says will consider
“both the promise and risks of AI.”
The group will have just 90 days to make their suggestions.
“She recognizes the significance of AI in today’s world and anybody
who’s been paying attention for the last 50 years knows she will be a
force in this conversation,” said Daniel Zingale, the convener of
OpenAI's new nonprofit commission and a former adviser to three
California governors.
Huerta’s advice won’t be binding but the presence of a social activist
icon could be influential as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attempts a costly
restructuring of the San Francisco company's corporate governance, which
requires the approval of California's attorney general and others.
Another coalition of labor leaders and nonprofits recently petitioned
state Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, to investigate OpenAI,
halt the proposed conversion and “protect billions of dollars that are
under threat as profit-driven hunger for power yields conflicts of
interest.”
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, started out in 2015 as a nonprofit
research laboratory dedicated to safely building better-than-human AI
that benefits humanity.
It later formed a for-profit arm and shifted most of its staff there,
but is still controlled by a nonprofit board of directors. It is now
trying to convert itself more fully into a for-profit corporation but
faces a number of hurdles, including getting the approval of California
and Delaware attorneys general, potentially buying out the nonprofit's
pricy assets and fighting a lawsuit from co-founder and early investor
Elon Musk.
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Honoree Dolores Huerta attends The Albies hosted by the Clooney
Foundation for Justice at the New York Public Library on Thursday,
Sept. 26, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP,
file)
 Backed by Japanese tech giant
SoftBank, OpenAI last month said it’s working to raise $40 billion
in funding, putting its value at $300 billion.
Huerta will be joined on the new advisory commission by former
Spanish-language media executive Monica Lozano; Robert Ross, the
recently retired president of The California Endowment; and Jack
Oliver, an attorney and longtime Republican campaign fundraiser.
Zingale, the group's convener, is a former aide to California
governors including Democrat Gavin Newsom and Republican Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
“We’re interested in how you put the power of AI in the hands of
everyday people and the community organizations that serve them,”
Zingale said in an interview Wednesday. “Because, if AI is going to
bring a renaissance, or a dark age, these are the people you want to
tip the scale in favor of humanity.”
The group is now tasked with gathering community feedback for the
problems OpenAI's philanthropy could work to address. But for
California nonprofit leaders pushing for legal action from the state
attorney general, it doesn't alter what they view as the state's
duty to pause the restructuring, assess the value of OpenAI's
charitable assets and make sure they are used in the public's
interest.
“As impressive as the individual members of OpenAI’s advisory
commission are, the commission itself appears to be a calculated
distraction from the core problem: OpenAI misappropriating its
nonprofit assets for private gain," said Orson Aguilar, the CEO and
founding president of LatinoProsperity, in a written statement.
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