Exclusive: Anthropic to rapidly expand communications team
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Anthropic — the AI startup best known for its large language models Claude — is tapping people, not AI, to build out its communications team.
Why it matters: Anthropic plans to triple the size of its comms team by the end of year, its head of communications Sasha de Marigny told Axios.
The big picture: Last month Anthropic chief information security officer Jason Clinton told Axios' Sam Sabin that it will be more common to see AI-powered virtual employees within the next year.
- These AI identities would have a new level of autonomy that would include their own "memories,"corporate accounts and passwords, Clinton said.
Yes, but: There are some tasks the team at Anthropic will not solely rely on AI for, namely, strategic storytelling.
What they're saying: "Claude is definitely a prominent team member for everyone, but comms people are sort of like BS detectors," de Marigny said. "I need very strong domain experts who can spot an oversimplified explanation or provide context that the model does not have."
- "Critical thinking is still a huge comparative advantage for humans. I'm looking for excellent strategists — people who understand the new world order and know how to develop holistic plans to cut through to the audiences we care about."
State of play: Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees seeking to build ethically rigorous AI products.
- The company started as a Public Benefit Corp — which OpenAI is currently struggling to become — and is currently valued at more than $61 billion.
- The current communications team is made up of about 20 people who oversee Anthropic's policy, corporate, internal, product and research communications, along with editorial, social and brand.
Zoom in: Domain expertise is a priority as the team looks to engage with more subject matter experts and build up its influencer programs, de Marigny says.
- "If you are a biologist who loves to communicate, please get in touch," she said. "Biology is an area that Anthropic is going to continue to look at. It's something very close to [Anthropic CEO] Dario [Amodei's] heart, and I want us to be able to communicate it in a way that actual biologists will listen to, but also in a way the everyday person understands."
Anthropic is also looking to staff up with designers, documentarians, data visualization experts and journalists.
- "It is hard to capture people's attention, but I think if you can communicate in a way that is very intentional, it can resonate with people, and it can actually augment and amplify the message in very powerful ways."
The intrigue: When applying for a job at Anthropic, job seekers are asked to confirm they have not used AI for help but instead relied on "non AI-assisted communication skills."
- "If I wanted Claude to do the job for you entirely, I would probably just use Claude" instead of hiring for the role, de Marigny said.
- When hiring, "you want to get that baseline and then understand that AI will likely augment it. ... We're in the place where the AI plays a huge role, but humans are still in the driver's seat."
- This is particularly true for communicators who are "making judgment calls, reading the room and providing historical context and relational context," she added.
What's next: There are six open communication and brand roles, with more to come in global markets.
More on Axios:
