Exclusive: A new tool supported by OpenAI’s Sam Altman will help parents access paid leave

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Johnson & Johnson's Jennifer Taubert is reportedly one of two candidates in line for the CEO spot, women are suing the New Jersey State Police for gender bias, and OpenAI supports a new tool that will help parents access paid leave. Have a terrific Tuesday!

- Power of paid leave. As ChatGPT gained popularity with consumers over the past year—and conversations about the safety risks of AI got louder—Reshma Saujani started to think about other ways AI could impact society. As the founder of Girls Who Code, she was well-connected in the tech industry, and as the leader of a new nonprofit called Moms First, these days she had one issue on her mind: paid family leave.

So Saujani reached out to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to pitch an idea: an AI tool that would help parents access paid leave. While there are plenty of parental leave fact sheets and guidelines out there, she envisioned a more comprehensive tool that would rely on the technology of ChatGPT to answer users' questions from "Do I have paid leave and how much?" to "Do I still qualify for 'birthing parent' paid leave if I have a C-section?"

Altman—well before his dramatic OpenAI ouster and return—liked Saujani's idea and connected Moms First with Novy.ai, an OpenAI-connected startup that helps scale AI projects. The project was also supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies.

Their tool, PaidLeave.ai, debuts today, with a GPT-powered chatbot that informs parents about all leave options available to them in New York State. The partners plan to expand to all 13 U.S. states that offer paid leave, and then nationwide.

Saujani views the tool as a way for parents to get their questions answered without risking job security. "What we heard from moms over and over again is they're terrified to ask questions to HR or their employer because they think they're going to get fired," she says. "So this tool guards against retaliation."

The U.S. is one of the only developed countries without national paid leave. In states that do guarantee some form of paid leave to some workers, uptake is often lower than policymakers would like. In 2021, around 211,000 babies were born in New York and only 113,025 paid family leave claims were used by parents to care for and bond with a newborn—around a quarter of possibly eligible parents, Moms First points out.

The recent drama at OpenAI and the reassembling of its board has shone an even brighter spotlight on the role of women in these developing technologies—and where they're left out. Just this weekend, the New York Times published a list of leaders behind the rise of AI that didn't feature a single woman.

Saujani sees PaidLeave.AI as an example of the ways women's perspectives can influence how AI shapes the future, beyond the important conversations about bias and safety. "Instead of the safety risks, instead of focusing on doomsday," she says, "what if we actually invested in creating these tools for the most vulnerable?"

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe

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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com