The tiny team trying to keep AI from destroying everything

Today, I’m talking with Verge senior AI reporter Hayden Field about some of the people responsible for studying AI and deciding in what ways it might… well, ruin the world. Those folks work at Anthropic as part of a group called the societal impacts team, which Hayden just spent time with for a profile she published this week on The Verge.

The team is just nine people out of more than 2,000 who work at Anthropic, and their only job, as the team members themselves say, is to investigate and publish quote "inconvenient truths” about AI. That of course brings up a whole host of problems, the most important of which is whether this team can remain independent, or even exist at all, as it publicizes findings about Anthropic's own products that might be unflattering or even politically fraught.

Links:

It’s their job to keep AI from destroying everything | The Verge

Anthropic details how it measures Claude’s wokeness | The Verge

White House orders tech companies to make AI bigoted again | The Verge

Chaos and lies: Why Sam Altman was booted from OpenAI | The Verge

How Elon Musk Is remaking Grok in his image | NYT

Anthropic tries to defuse White House backlash | Axios

New AI battle: White House vs. Anthropic | Axios

Anthropic will pursue gulf state investments after all | Wired

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