Responsible

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Hello, and welcome to Responsible, by ClearOPS, a newsletter about ResponsibleAI and other responsible business practices.

I’m a lawyer, mom, wife, cook and entrepreneur. I have so many ideas for companies that it sometimes is hard to focus, but I have been committed to ResponsibleAI since 2015 when I joined an AI company called Clarifai.

Here’s what we have for you today

• Justin Timberlake’s PR team did what?

• OpenAI data breach - I have to cover it!

• Caroline’s weekly musings

In mid-June, Justin Timberlake got a DUI. Normally, I don’t really care about this type of celebrity news, but it is the PR strategy of his team that I find abhorrent.

You see, I was sitting around a table with a group of friends this past July 4th and the conversation turned to this story. In a nutshell, the PR team went after the cop who arrested JT. They managed to get the NY Post to cover this spin on the “story” about the police officer who caught him. As my friends were reflecting on the whole incident, I could not help but think it is an irresponsible tactic. Is it okay for the marketing team to distract fans from JT’s alleged drunk driving by trying to paint this cop as “bad” or strict? Are they trying to make people feel empathy for JT?

I may be sensitive to this because I, too, have been the victim of manufactured finger pointing in order for someone to paint a different picture of the truth.

To add insult to injury, someone at the table mentioned that they had heard that this 23 year old cop is now struggling with all the media attention, potentially suffering depression, and is considering quitting his job.

😡 It makes me so mad. Even if this is a “smart” PR strategy and even if the hearsay is not true and this cop is handling it just fine, it is unethical and irresponsible. We should not be harassing someone when they are merely doing their job nor should we be making a DUI seem like someone else’s fault.

Bad form, JT, bad form.

I have to comment on the recent press leak about OpenAI’s 2023 security incident. If you don’t know the story, please read it and come back.

Here is the number one responsibility question: even though they did not legally have to report it, which seems like a legit assessment, should they have reported it as a matter of principle?