U.S. Investigative Blogger Claims Anthropic Funding Network Pushes 'AI Doom Theory,' Calls for Congressional Investigation

Beating AI News Flash: U.S. investigative blogger Kevin Bass posted that after reviewing Anthropic's financial relationships, he found that the company may influence AI safety assessment organizations and groups promoting "AI doomerism" through a funding network, and called on the U.S. Congress to investigate.

Bass specifically highlighted the AI safety assessment organization METR. He said that Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei previously proposed that third-party organizations assess AI model risks and recommended METR, but METR and its affiliated organizations have indirect financial ties to Anthropic. Bass said that Dustin Moskovitz's Anthropic shares were placed into the Good Ventures Foundation, and that this foundation is an important funder of the related ecosystem; the value of these Anthropic shares has grown from about $500 million in early last year to more than $7.7 billion currently.

Bass further alleged that organizations with financial ties to METR also fund institutions such as the Tarbell Center that promote AI risk and "AI doomsday" narratives, with related content having been published in media outlets including The Verge, Science, the Los Angeles Times, The Dispatch, and TIME. He believes that this funding structure may cause relevant institutions to lack independence in assessing Anthropic's models and form a feedback loop of "Anthropic grows stronger—AI risk narratives expand—demand for regulation increases—relevant institutions receive more funding."

Bass stated that the above funding relationships and their impact require further investigation, and said he will release relevant evidence and GitHub materials in subsequent posts, ultimately calling on the U.S. Congress to investigate Anthropic and its affiliated funding network.