This is not even close to paranoid. Conflicts of interest are an important issue for nonprofits because it can cause them to lose tax exempt status, and the IRS makes a whole todo about it, and therefore so do competent boards. Trying to brush this under the rug because of politics is disgusting and would not be tolerated at ethical and competent organizations.
> I don’t understand why that’s not a conflict of interest?
It's not the conflict of interest it would be if it was the board of a for profit corporation that was basically identical to the existing for-profit LLC but without the lyaers above it ending with the nonprofit that the board actually runs, because OpenAI is not a normal company, and making profit is not its purpose, so the CEO of a company that happens to have a product in the same space as the LLC is not in a fundamental conflict of interest (there may be some specific decisions it would make sense for him to recuse from for conflict reasons, but there is a difference between "may have a conflict regarding certain decisions" and "has a fundamental conflict incompatible with sitting on the board".)
Its not a conflict for a nonprofit that raises money with craft faires to have someone who runs a for-profit periodic craft faire in the same market on its board. It is a conflict for a for profit corporation whose business is running such a craft faire to do so, though.
>Sure, I just don't see why that should be disqualifying
The same reason every conflict of interest is a problem. You're not advocating for what's best for the side you are supposed to be representing because you are also representing a self interest.
> The OP said was distasteful when they turn into "political orgs with a political agenda".
There is a difference between political in the sense that all legislation is political, and politics as an "us vs. them" tribal conflict where anything which is bad for your opponents is good for you and vice versa. Having anyone, but public interest orgs especially, participate in the second kind of politics is distasteful.
> As a side note, 508(c)(1)(a) can also speak about politics while 501(c)(3) are forbidden from doing so.
Er, that's not exactly true. 501(c)(3) aren't forbidden from speaking about politics. There are restrictions on the ways in which they can (e.g. no overt party affiliation) and the degree to which they can do so. For example, they can spend time lobbying, but only 10% of their time and only 10% of their budget (I don't remember if it's still 10%, but that used to be the number). Oftentimes, 501(c)(3)s will have a separate, associated entity that they use for their political lobbying, to avoid having to keep track of their resources when mixed and prove that it's under this threshold.
Both profit and non-profit boards have members that have potential conflicts of interest all the time. So long as it’s not too egregious no one cares, especially not the IRS.
> An undisclosed conflict of interest is always a problem.
Can you help me understand why this is? If a known conflict of interest may or may not be a problem for the downside party why does that change if the conflict is unknown?
I can see how it can become a problem, and how the downside party is at a disadvantage but I’m not understanding why this is always a problem.
> I think some people are missing the conflict of interest because the author blurs the lines between his personal opinion and his business.
No, what's going on is that you don't understand what "conflict of interest" refers to.
Different people having different interests, as when the apple company says you should buy apples even though you prefer oranges, is just a regular conflict. A conflict of interest is when one person has two different interests. The apple company isn't experiencing a conflict in your example.
This is not even close to paranoid. Conflicts of interest are an important issue for nonprofits because it can cause them to lose tax exempt status, and the IRS makes a whole todo about it, and therefore so do competent boards. Trying to brush this under the rug because of politics is disgusting and would not be tolerated at ethical and competent organizations.
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