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
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
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- Succession saga. Ashley McEvoy was considered a contender for Johnson & Johnson’s CEO job after spending 27 years at the company and leading its medical device business, but her public enthusiasm for a CEO job in a Broadsheet profile in September (she said she would "absolutely" be interested in one) reportedly scuttled her chances. With McEvoy now leaving the pharmaceutical company, Jennifer Taubert, who heads up J&J’s pharmaceutical business, is one of two candidates that the Wall Street Journal reports is leading the race to take over as CEO in the coming years. Wall Street Journal
- Hostile forces. An ongoing lawsuit from four current and former New Jersey state troopers accuses the department of withholding promotion opportunities for women and creating a hostile work environment. One plaintiff claims she was forced to pump breast milk in unkempt rooms and was once told by Tammy Murphy, the governor of New Jersey’s wife and now a Senate candidate, that she couldn’t pump while at the Murphy’s home. New Jersey's attorney general and the U.S. Justice Department declined to comment and Murphy says she supports breastfeeding and pumping. New York Times
- Drinking for the job. Almost a quarter of high-earning women drink at least 14 standard drinks a week, and experts say that the mix of work pressures, child care responsibilities, and other conditions lead professional women down a path of alcohol abuse. Some working women who spoke with the Financial Times use alcohol as end-of-day relief, while others used it to fit in during work events. Financial Times
- Binge watching and buying. Ellyn Briggs of business intelligence company Morning Consult says young women are vulnerable to impulsive and unaffordable spending because of their exposure to unrealistic product “hauls” on TikTok. Because women spend more time on the app and form closer relationships to influencers, CNBC reports, they may falsely believe they can, and should, spend and consume at the same rate. CNBC
- Facilities failure. Dozens of female athletes at the University of Oregon allege that the school withheld proper facilities and funding from the women’s beach volleyball team and club rowing team in a Title IX lawsuit filed last week. Beach volleyball players, who practice in a public park with hand-me-down uniforms, say that “no men’s team faces anything remotely similar” while the club rowing team is suing over the lack of a varsity rowing team. Oregon said the school is “committed to providing a quality, positive experience for all our student-athletes.” Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: BioCatch named Ellevest founder Sallie Krawcheck to its board of directors. PayPal appointed Isabel Cruz as chief people officer and Michelle Gill as EVP, general manager of the newly formed Small Business and Financial Services Group. Canaan hired Dana Malman Warren as a venture partner. TrailRunner International added Amanda Bush as managing director.
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Franklin Templeton’s Jenny Johnson on Bitcoin ETFs, investing in crypto, and how her firm is harnessing the blockchain Fortune
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