Bite-Sized Business Law
Looking for the latest in legal business news?
Get a breakdown of the top stories in business law from industry leaders on the front lines with Bite-Sized Business Law. Host Amy Martella takes a closer look at the latest corporate happenings through interviews with the attorneys, legal experts, public figures, and scholars behind the news to distill business law’s biggest stories into bite-sized portions.
This is your chance to go further into the world of business law and stay up to date with legal cases and industry trends.
Corporations impact us all, leading changes that extend far beyond business to shape the economy, public policy, technology, and beyond. Looking at the big picture, Amy discusses not only the underlying issues in business ethics and legal cases leading the biggest stories but also sparks thought-provoking discussions on where the law should be headed.
Amy is the Executive Director of the Corporate Law Center at Fordham University School of Law. Her background ranges from big law to government to tech startups, allowing her to offer an insider’s perspective of the issues that shape corporate actions, large and small. Covering crypto regulation to securities fraud, AI’s impact to Elon Musk’s pay package, Bite-Sized Business Law covers it all with guests of varying viewpoints to provide the nuanced analysis needed to tackle complex problems.
Whether you're looking for the latest in legal insight on intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions, business ethics or legal cases in the business law world, you’ll find it here. Enjoying a thoughtful perspective on the news stories of the moment, Bite-Sized Business Law examines big issues and delivers them in small doses.
Bite-Sized Business Law is a project by the Corporate Law Center at Fordham Law. The Center serves as a hub for scholars, professionals, policymakers, and students to engage in the study, discussion, and debate of current issues in corporate law. The Center focuses on aspects of corporate law, corporate compliance, antitrust law, and securities regulation. Through initiatives like the Mergers and Acquisitions seminar and the Securities Litigation and Arbitration Clinic, students actively engage in real-world research and cases, bridging the gap between classroom learning and practical application in the legal field.
Bite-Sized Business Law
The Profit Problem: An Open Letter to OpenAI
Should profit be part of the calculation in developing safe AI? The future of artificial general intelligence (“AGI”) hinges on how well we balance innovation with safety. In this episode, Tyler Whitmer, founder, president, and CEO of Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology (LASST), talks about his work to protect OpenAI’s original mission to ensure AGI is safe and benefits all of humanity. Drawing on his background as a commercial litigator and nonprofit leader, Tyler explains why OpenAI’s unique corporate structure was designed to safeguard against profit motives and how a proposed restructuring could weaken those protections. He outlines the legal and ethical risks of shifting control away from the nonprofit, the coalition effort that led to an open letter to California and Delaware attorneys general, and what changes are still needed to keep mission ahead of money. The conversation also explores broader concerns about the democratization of harmful technologies, the role of legal advocacy in tech safety, and advice for lawyers who want to work in this critical space. Listen in for a timely look at the intersection between law, technology, and the public interest!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Tyler’s path from partner at Quinn Emanuel to nonprofit AI safety advocate.
- The founding of LASST to address potential catastrophic tech risks through legal advocacy.
- How LASST uses litigation tracking and amicus briefs to influence court decisions.
- OpenAI’s charitable mission as a 501(c)(3) to ensure AGI is safe and benefits all of humanity.
- An outline of the concerns over OpenAI’s shift from mission-focused to profit-driven goals.
- What makes OpenAI’s original nonprofit-over-for-profit structure so unique.
- Details of the proposed restructuring and its potential mission risks.
- A breakdown of the open letter urging AGs to protect OpenAI’s charitable mission.
- Unpacking legal concerns for restructuring under California law and Delaware fiduciary duty.
- How OpenAI has revised its plans and the remaining questions on control and safeguards.
- Risks of removing investor return caps, including weakening mission enforceability.
- Tyler’s optimism about AI’s benefits, alongside concerns over its potential for grave harm.
- Advice for young lawyers entering the evolving AI and legal landscape.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Tyler Whitmer
Tyler Whitmer on LinkedIn
Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology (LASST)
Encode Amicus Brief
'Not for Private Gain: An Open Letter to OpenAI' | April 2025
'Not for Private Gain: An Open Letter to OpenAI Update' | May 2025
Fordham University School of Law Corporate Law Center