Anthropic pours $20 million into AI policy fight
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Anthropic is donating $20 million to Public First Action, a bipartisan advocacy group focused on AI transparency and safeguards, the company announced on Thursday.
Why it matters: AI policy is becoming a campaign flashpoint, and super PACs are raising millions to sway voters.
Context: Public First Action is tied to two super PACs, one Democratic and one Republican, that plan to back candidates who support AI safeguards.
- The priorities include giving the public more visibility into AI companies, opposing preempting state-level AI regulation without a strong federal standard, export controls on AI chips and regulation on high risks like AI-enabled biological weapons.
What they're saying: "At present, there are few organized efforts to help mobilize people and politicians who understand what's at stake in AI development," Anthropic said in a press release.
- "Instead, vast resources have flowed to political organizations that oppose these efforts. Public First Action is working to fill that gap."
The big picture: Anthropic is an outlier in the industry, positioning itself as the poster child for regulating AI, from limiting exports of sensitive technology to proposing an AI transparency framework.
- Anthropic's peers have thrown their weight behind PACs that are focused on innovation and preventing a patchwork of state-level regulation.
- AI super PAC Leading the Future has raised more than $125 million from OpenAI's Greg Brockman, a16Z and others in the industry.
