OpenAI restructured to a for-profit company in a moved tied to an agreement with California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Company CEO Sam Altman participates in a discussion in San Francisco on Nov. 16, 2023.
(
Eric Risberg
/
AP Photo
)
Topline:
The company behind ChatGPT is converting to a for-profit company and settling an investigation by California’s attorney general. Experts and advocates say the company could still exploit its charitable roots.
More details: OpenAI said Tuesday it would restructure as a for-profit company in a way that addresses concerns from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who signed off on the transformation. But details of the move could revive worries that OpenAI is misusing charitable tax exemptions, experts and advocates told CalMatters. The ChatGPT maker is putting its nonprofit arm nominally in control of the for-profit entity, but there are numerous ways the for-profit company could end up calling the shots, these people said. There are also important, unanswered questions about the safeguards that are supposed to keep that from happening.
Why it matters: Under the restructuring, the newly-formed OpenAI Foundation will hold about 26 percent of OpenAI’s valuation, a share amounting to $130 billion, instantly making it one of the most well-endowed philanthropic organizations in the world. Microsoft, company employees, and other investors will hold the rest. The controlling nonprofit foundation can appoint members of the for-profit board of directors and, through a special committee, step in to address AI safety concerns. The company also pledged to remain in California.
Read on... for what critics say about the deal.
OpenAI said Tuesday it would restructure as a for-profit company in a way that addresses concerns from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who signed off on the transformation.
But details of the move could revive worries that OpenAI is misusing charitable tax exemptions, experts and advocates told CalMatters. The ChatGPT maker is putting its nonprofit arm nominally in control of the for-profit entity, but there are numerous ways the for-profit company could end up calling the shots, these people said. There are also important, unanswered questions about the safeguards that are supposed to keep that from happening.
Under the restructuring, the newly-formed OpenAI Foundation will hold about 26 percent of OpenAI’s valuation, a share amounting to $130 billion, instantly making it one of the most well-endowed philanthropic organizations in the world. Microsoft, company employees, and other investors will hold the rest. The controlling nonprofit foundation can appoint members of the for-profit board of directors and, through a special committee, step in to address AI safety concerns. The company also pledged to remain in California.
OpenAI did not respond to a CalMatters request for additional details about potential safeguards to preserve the independence of the OpenAI Foundation.
OpenAI’s plans came under scrutiny in California because Bonta, along with Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, wanted to ensure the company stayed true to the mission laid out in its charter when the organization was founded as a nonprofit a decade ago to make artificial intelligence that benefits humanity. The company had pledged all “assets are irrevocably dedicated” to this purpose.
Bonta and Jennings have both now signed agreements with OpenAI blessing its new structure.
“We will be keeping a close eye on OpenAI to ensure ongoing adherence to its charitable mission and the protection of the safety of all Californians,” Bonta wrote.
Robert Bartlett, a professor of law and business at Stanford Law School, has studied and worked in the venture capital ecosystem for three decades. He said OpenAI’s start as a nonprofit was unusual and related to its unique mission around artificial intelligence. But it found being a nonprofit restrictive, making it difficult to raise capital and compensate its employees with equity in the company. Its restructuring should pave the way for an eventual initial public offering.
Bartlett said the new arrangement that the nonprofit, a minority stakeholder, will have oversight of the public benefit corporation is also unusual. He said the deal envisions a “pretty active role” for the nonprofit’s safety committee, which will include the right to control safety procedures and halt the release of AI models made by the corporation. OpenAI previously named four members of the safety committee on its website and has said all current members of the non-profit board will serve on the for-profit board, with some as observers.
But not knowing exactly how much overlap there might be between the boards of the nonprofit and the corporation is a big question, as is the ultimate composition of the committee, Bartlett said.
“We’ll have to see what happens, who’s on the committee, how active (they are), and their relationship to OpenAI,” Bartlett said. “Will (the structure) be meaningful and consistent with the AG’s focus on safety?”
Steven Adler previously led a product safety team at OpenAI. On Tuesday he published an op-ed in the New York Times that argues that the company can’t be trusted when they say they can safely deploy erotica chatbots in part because it has a history of ignoring risks.
He told CalMatters that under the restructure that he thinks the nonprofit’s safety committee needs more independence to operate effectively. “I hope that a truly independent body will do a better job of protecting the organization’s mission than one that feels any pull toward profits,” he said.
There’s a bazillion conflicts of interest here.
— Judith Bell, San Francisco Foundation
OpenAI’s restructuring drew ire from Eyes On OpenAI, a coalition of more than 60 California nonprofit organizations who have argued for more than a year that attorneys general should force the company to transfer its assets to an independent nonprofit entity. The precedent for this approach comes from Blue Cross of California, which started as a nonprofit. Following a transfer of assets to a for-profit subsidiary in the 1990s, that organization gave more than $3 billion in stock to two foundations.
San Francisco Foundation chief Impact Officer Judith Bell, a member of the Eyes on OpenAI coalition, said the deal could set a precedent for startups to evade taxes, and is also concerned that under the restructuring the same people can serve on boards of directors for the for-profit and the nonprofit.
“There’s a bazillion conflicts of interest here,” she said, adding that those conflicts are particularly worrisome given the broad potential harms the foundation needs to keep an eye on, including how the tech impacts children, the economy, the workplace, and society.
The deal speaks to the tremendous influence of a corporation to push forward a deal, said Orson Aguilar, director of the advocacy nonprofit LatinoProsperity and a member of the Eyes On OpenAI coalition.
He believes OpenAI lost its way when key executives realized they could make an enormous amount of money for themselves. Members of the nonprofit board, meanwhile, variously quit and lost influence after some of them attempted to oust CEO Sam Altman in 2023.
“The nonprofit continues to operate under the influence of the for-profit it supposedly oversees and that’s been our biggest objection and nothing today tells us that anything meaningful has changed that,” he said.
These Winter Olympics will feature a new sport for the first time in over three decades.
Why it matters: While the Games regularly add events within existing disciplines, they haven't introduced an entirely new sport since the return of skeleton in 2002. That changes this year with the debut of ski mountaineering, aka "skimo."
The new sport: In ski mountaineering, athletes navigate a set course amidst rugged terrain. They attach climbing skins to the base of their skis while they ascend a mountain, quickly maneuver their skis off to tackle a series of steps on foot, then readjust and ski back down.
Read on... for more about the new sport and brand new competitions in the Games.
These Winter Olympics will feature a new sport for the first time in over three decades.
While the Games regularly add events within existing disciplines, they haven't introduced an entirely new sport since the return of skeleton in 2002.
That changes this year with the debut of ski mountaineering, aka "skimo."
The sport, which involves hiking up and skiing down a mountain, will feature three events: women's sprint, men's sprint and mixed relay.
That's in addition to five brand new competitions in longtime Winter Olympic sports — for a grand total of eight new medal opportunities at this year's Games. Here's what to know about them.
The new sport: ski mountaineering
In ski mountaineering, athletes navigate a set course amidst rugged terrain. They attach climbing skins to the base of their skis while they ascend a mountain, quickly maneuver their skis off to tackle a series of steps on foot, then readjust and ski back down.
The sprint race consists of an ascent and descent, starting with time trials and seeding athletes into groups of six. In the mixed relay, teams of one man and one woman alternate four laps — two ascents and two descents — on a longer course (with an elevation gain of 460 feet compared to 230 in the sprint).
According to Team USA, ski mountaineering has its roots in the "need to traverse the snow-covered landscapes of Europe in prehistoric times," and can officially be traced back to the mountains of Switzerland in 1897.
But the sport known as skimo really took off in the 21st century, hosting its first world championships in France in 2002 and establishing a World Cup circuit two years later.
It was added to the Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2020, and the following year was approved for inclusion in Milano Cortina — a fitting country for its Olympic debut, since the sport has a long history and many international champions in Italy.
Ski mountaineering competitions will be held in the Valtellina Valley town of Bormio, at the same venue as Alpine skiing.
The U.S. team narrowly qualified for the Games in a high-stakes Utah race in early December, the very last chance for teams to earn Olympic ranking points.
The mixed relay team of Anna Gibson and Cam Smith won its race by a minute and a half on home snow, beating rival Canada to take home a gold medal and secure for Team USA the continent's last Olympics spot. It wasn't just a major victory, but a chance for Team USA to educate curious Instagram followers about the sport itself.
New events within skeleton, luge, ski jumping and moguls
The other new events are additional variations of existing competitions, giving more athletes — particularly women — a chance to compete:
There's dual moguls, a freestyle skiing event in which two athletes compete side by side, performing aerial tricks on two jumps of a bumpy course. Traditional moguls, featuring one skier at a time, have been part of the Winter Games since the 1990s. This year will feature both men's and women's dual moguls.
Another new event is mixed team skeleton, which pairs one man and one woman from the same country to race down an ice track head-first on a small sled.
This year also marks the debut of women's doubles luge, in which two women from the same country double up on the same sled to race down the track, feet-first. The existing doubles luge competition will officially become a men's event, which it effectively has been since the 1960s, since women were technically eligible but never previously participated.
Ski jumpingis also getting a brand new event, the women's individual large hill competition. That means both men and women will compete in normal and large hill events, as well as a mixed team event, which made its debut in the 2022 Beijing Games.
Men have one additional ski jumping medal event, which is rebranding this year: the super team, a new format that replaces the traditional four-person team competition with pairs of two competing in up to three jumps. Olympics organizers say the restructuring makes the competition more dynamic and paves the way for smaller nations to participate.
Copyright 2026 NPR
"Sinners" writer/director/producer Ryan Coogler, producer Zinzi Coogler and producer Sev Ohanian attend the European premiere of "Sinners" at Cineworld Leicester Square on April 14, 2025, in London.
(
Tim P. Whitby
/
Getty Images
)
Topline:
'Sinners' producer Sev Ohanian is the first Armenian immigrant to the U.S. to be nominated for best picture.
The context: Ohanian produced Sinners, along with writer/director/producer Ryan Coogler and Coogler’s wife and fellow producer Zinzi Coogler.
The 2025 film made history in more way than one with its 16 total Oscar nominations, breaking the previous record of 14 set by All About Eve and later matched by Titanic and La La Land. It also marked the first time that an Armenian American immigrant was nominated for Best Picture.
Ohanian was born to Armenian parents in Germany, immigrated to Glendale with his family when he was a baby. Hank Moonjean (Dangerous Liaisons) was the first Armenian American to be nominated for best picture in 1989.
Read on ... for more from Ohanian about the making of Sinners.
The vampire epic Sinners made history in more ways than one this year with its Oscar nominations.
The film’s 16 total nominations broke the previous record of 14 set by All About Eve and later matched by Titanic and La La Land. It also marked the first time that an Armenian American immigrant — Sev Ohanian — was nominated for best picture.
Ohanian produced Sinners, along with writer/director/producer Ryan Coogler and producer Zinzi Coogler.
LAist News host Julia Paskin spoke with Ohanian about Sinners and how making funny YouTube videos about his Armenian parents helped kick off a creative partnership with his fellow USC film school classmate Ryan Coogler.
Below are highlights from the conversation and an extended version of the interview is available here.
On Sinners as ‘the final exam of filmmaking’
Ohanian says he describes Sinners as like “the final exam of filmmaking,” with some more common challenges and others that were more unique.
That included casting: “Ryan knew from the very beginning [that] he wanted to find almost like a young unknown talent who would be great at acting, great at singing, could play guitar, [...] someone who had a youthful face, but a voice that was far beyond his years, which, how do we even find that? Is that something that people put on their resumes?”
With the help of casting director Francine Maisler (also nominated for an Oscar in the Academy’s first year bestowing a casting award), they found newcomer Miles Caton.
Then there were challenges unique to shooting in the swamps of Louisiana. Ohanian says there were “I think 6,042 mosquitoes at any given day. There was that one time an alligator literally showed up on set. Thankfully, it was all taken care of. Everyone was safe.”
How the Armenian American community in LA helped him launch his film career
Growing up, Ohanian says he loved the idea of making a career in filmmaking but was daunted.
“I had this idea that to be a filmmaker, you’ve gotta have connections and resources and knowledge, things that will be passed down. But as an Armenian American immigrant,” Ohanian says, “those are not things that were part of my community.”
He put the idea of filmmaking as a career to the side, but after making some YouTube videos about his Armenian parents for fun, “they blew up. Armenians all around the world were sharing them. They were going viral. And I ended up writing a movie called My Big Fat Armenian Family,” inspired by My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
He screened the movie at Glendale High School, got the word out to the Armenian American community, and people showed up and paid to see it.
"That experience, beyond the success of it on the financial level,” Ohanian says, “the fact that my community responded to something that I thought of, that I shot with my friends, it kind of made me realize that those things that I thought were necessary — connections and resources and knowledge — I had those this whole time in my community. That's what got me into USC where I started doing it for real.”
Keep up with LAist.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
Seattle Seahawks fans have another shot to see a Super Bowl win.
(
Jason Kempin
/
Getty Images
)
In this edition:
This weekend, check out Super Bowl (and Puppy Bowl!) watch parties, a Matisse talk, Joe Wong (in Mandarin and English) at the Improv and more of the best things to do.
Highlights:
Comedian Joe Wong is bringing his show, Twin Lunarcies, to the Improv in both Mandarin and English. Catch him before his Netflix is a Joke show in May.
The dream of the ‘90s is alive and well at the Lodge Room as a supergroup with members of R.E.M., Screaming Trees and Them Crooked Vultures join forces as a new band, Drink the Sea.
Watch the Puppy Bowl while surrounded by actual puppies at Annenberg Pet Space?! I think this one speaks for itself. Ruff!
The Broad’s current exhibit, Robert Therrien’s This is a Story, plays with the idea that everyday objects and materials can become art and move between worlds.The Grammy-nominated orchestral collective Wild Up takes a similar approach to their music and will work with a group of 30 non-musicians when they take the stage at the Broad to perform The Great Learning, Paragraphs 2 and 7, written in the late 1960s by Cornelius Cardew.
Aha! I found excellent art nerd Super Bowl alternative programming. Head to the Hammer and listen to independent art historian and former Getty Museum director John Walsh discuss Matisse’spainting of the female form between the wars.
I think there’s a football game on Sunday — before and after the Bad Bunny concert. Don’t worry, there are some watch party options (and Super Bowl alternatives!) in today’s newsletter. If football isn’t your thing, there are plenty of other sports options available in the form of the Winter Olympics, which begin this weekend.
We’re all getting a free concert on Sunday, but Licorice Pizza has the rest of your music picks for the week, including hometown faves the Silversun Pickups album release party at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at Barnsdall Gallery Theater, Aimee Mann at Pacific Electric and Mandy Patinkin singing Sondheim and more at the Carpenter Center on Saturday.
Sunday, February 8, 7 p.m. (Mandarin) and 9:15 p.m. (English) Hollywood Improv 8162 Melrose Ave., Hollywood COST: $44.79; MORE INFO
(
Michael S. Schwartz
/
Getty Images
)
Comedian Joe Wong has done what few comics can — build an audience in two languages — and he’s bringing his show, Twin Lunarcies, to the Improv in both Mandarin and English. Wong hosted a TV show in his native China for a decade before exploring and finding success in the U.S., where he’s roasted Joe Biden at the Radio & TV Correspondents Dinner and appeared on many late-night talk shows. Catch him before his Netflix is a Joke show in May.
Drink the Sea (members of REM, Screaming Trees, Them Crooked Vultures)
Saturday, February 7, 8 p.m. Lodge Room 104 N. Ave. 56, 2nd floor, Highland Park COST: $45.50; MORE INFO
(
Courtesy Lodge Room
)
The dream of the ‘90s is alive and well at the Lodge Room as a supergroup with members of R.E.M., Screaming Trees (remember when all the bands had gerunds in their names?) and Them Crooked Vultures join forces for a new band, Drink the Sea.
Fuego Burlesque: A Bad Bunny Tribute
Saturday, February 7, 10 p.m. Harvelle's Long Beach 201 E. Broadway, Long Beach COST: $22; MORE INFO
(
Courtesy Harvelle's Long Beach
)
We’re getting a little racy at Best Things To Do this week, but this one is too good not to include, because just 15 minutes of Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl is not sufficient. Get the party started early with this burlesque tribute to the Puerto Rican superstar from Dirty Little Secrets Burlesque. Obviously, this event is 21+.
Super Bowl Watch Parties
Sunday, February 8, kickoff at 3:30 p.m. Various locations COST: VARIES
Atmosphere during CMT After Midnight After Party and Super Bowl Sunday
Sunday, February 8, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wallis Annenberg PetSpace 12005 Bluff Creek Drive, Playa Vista COST: FREE; MORE INFO
(
Laura Roberts
/
Unsplash
)
Watch the Puppy Bowl while surrounded by actual puppies?! I think this one speaks for itself. Ruff!
Israel Film Festival
Through Thursday, February 19 Saban, Fine Arts and Regal North Hollywood COST: VARIES; MORE INFO
(
Courtesy Israel Film Festival
)
The 37th annual Israel Film Festival kicks off this week and will host four U.S. premieres, plus a 40th anniversary screening of Ricochets, the 1986 film about the First Lebanon War starring Alon Aboutboul. Many new Israeli films will screen at three area venues — the Saban and the Fine Arts theaters in Beverly Hills, and the Regal in North Hollywood. The festival has a wide range of films, from comedies to features to docs, and many of the screenings include Q&As with talent afterward.
Home and Away: Matisse Makes Another Heaven
Sunday, February 8, 3 p.m. Hammer Museum 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood COST: FREE; MORE INFO
(
Courtesy Hammer Museum
)
Aha! I found excellent art nerd Super Bowl alternative programming. Head to the Hammer and listen to independent art historian and former Getty Museum director John Walsh discuss Matisse’s painting of the female form between the wars. Walsh will explore the influence of Matisse’s time in Nice and emerging art eras like Cubism on his work. This is the third of four in a lecture series about Matisse with Walsh at the Hammer; the last one follows on Sunday, Feb. 22.
Wild Up: The Great Learning
Saturday, February 7, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. The Broad 221 S. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A. COST: $25; MORE INFO
(
Courtesy The Broad
)
The Broad’s current exhibit, Robert Therrien’s This is a Story, plays with the idea that everyday objects and materials can become art and move between worlds. The Grammy-nominated orchestral collective Wild Up takes a similar approach to their music and will work with a group of 30 non-musicians when they take the stage at the Broad to perform The Great Learning, Paragraphs 2 and 7, written in the late 1960s by Cornelius Cardew. The public ensemble will learn the work “through repetitions and echoes, culminating in a performance where music becomes a shared space to embody collective creativity.”
Julia Barajas
explores how college students achieve their goals, whether they’re fresh out of high school, pursuing graduate work or looking to join the labor force through alternative pathways.
Published February 5, 2026 5:00 AM
Like campuses across the CSU system, Cal State Dominguez Hills was pushed to make tough financial choices last year.
(
Ashley Balderrama
/
LAist
)
Topline:
After concerted pushback from faculty, students and alumni, Cal State Dominguez Hills has decided not to eliminate six academic programs that were on the chopping block for months.
Why it matters: Critics said that cutting classic majors like art history and philosophy would be unthinkable at elite universities. They also held that Cal State Dominguez Hills, where Black and Latino students make up the majority and where more than 60% are eligible for federal Pell Grants, should have continued access to robust course offerings.
The backstory: Faced with a potential $375-million cut in state funding last winter, campus leaders across the CSU system moved to lay off faculty, shutter athletics programs and end majors.
What's next: In an email, campus spokesperson Lilly McKibbin said “No programs are currently being considered for potential discontinuation.” She also said that, as the campus continues “the process of reviewing our academic offerings, faculty and university leaders will consider many options, which could include expanding or consolidating existing programs, launching new ones, developing more interdisciplinary programs, discontinuing some offerings, or a combination of these possibilities.”
After concerted pushback from faculty, students and alumni, Cal State Dominguez Hills has decided not to eliminate six academic programs that were on the chopping block for months.
Faced with a potential $375 million cut in state funding last winter, campus leaders across the CSU system had moved to lay off faculty, shutter athletics programs and end majors.
This week, interim provost Kim Costino informed LAist that the programs will not be eliminated.
“Instead,” Costino added via email: “over the next year, [Cal State Dominguez Hills] will engage in a broad, holistic redesign process that will result in a leaner academic program portfolio that aligns the university’s academic offerings with our strategic plan, the CSU strategic plan, our university mission, the needs of our students and the job market demands of the region.”
In a followup email, campus spokesperson Lilly McKibbin said, “No programs are currently being considered for potential discontinuation.”
“Throughout the process of reviewing our academic offerings,” she added, “faculty and university leaders will consider many options, which could include expanding or consolidating existing programs, launching new ones, developing more interdisciplinary programs, discontinuing some offerings or a combination of these possibilities.”
A community effort
For educators like labor studies professor Stephen McFarland, Cal State Dominguez Hills’ decision to change course for now comes as “a big relief.”
In December, the California Faculty Association rallied against the proposed cuts. If implemented, members said, they wouldn’t just be detrimental to their colleagues but also to students.
In an email, McKibbin had told LAist: “Like all universities, [ours] must continually assess academic programs and invest in those which meet student needs, fulfill job market demands, and advance our mission. The university’s current financial constraints limit our ability to invest in new or expanded programs that could meet those needs.”
Students and alumni also spoke out against the proposed cuts. Noting that more than 60% of students are eligible for federal Pell Grants and that most financial aid awards go to families with incomes below $20,000, critics expressed concern that students from working-class backgrounds would have less access to humanities and social sciences.
Cutting classic majors like art history and philosophy, they told LAist, would be unthinkable at elite universities.
For months, non-tenured faculty in the designated programs navigated the anxiety of losing their employment. (McKibbin said the campus did “not anticipate layoffs of tenured or tenure-track faculty as a result of program discontinuation.") Meanwhile, the campus promised that if the cuts were made, students enrolled in those programs would still be able to finish their degrees at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
Labor studies professor McFarland, a CFA executive board member, credits the administration’s about-face to the “quick and rapid action” of faculty, students, alumni and other community supporters. They “really banded together” to make phone calls, send emails, show up to rallies and speak up at meetings, he said, all to convey the message that the programs are “core to any university that claims to be comprehensive.”
“We feel vindicated,” McFarland added. “And we're proud of the community effort that came together to protect these programs.”
To boost enrollment in the labor studies program, McFarland and his colleagues continue to advertise, in person and online.
(
Julia Barajas
/
LAist
)
The professor also believes the campus’ new leadership was central to the decision. Interim provost Costino and interim president Mary Ann Villareal “recognize the value of the humanities,” McFarland said because they come from humanities backgrounds.
But how the relationship between faculty in these departments and the administration pans out remains to be seen.
When it comes to his students, McFarland said, there is a belief that because most of them are the first in their families to go to college, they “ought to be steered into hard science: engineering, computer science, you know, [programs] with a clear career payoff.”
McFarland said he and his colleagues view the university “much differently.”
“We see it as a forum for students to study any subject they want,” he said, “to explore the worlds of creativity and human inquiry — and then decide which career path [to pursue].”
