Anthropic announced that Ben Bernanke, former Federal Reserve Chairman, had joined the long-term interest trust of the company's independent oversight body. This body is responsible for monitoring the direction of corporate development from a long-term perspective and may appoint members of the board of directors of Anthropic.
Responsible for long-term governance arrangements
Anthropic states that the mandate of the Trust is to promote advanced AI in the direction of “long-term benefit to humanity”. In addition to appointing directors, the agency advises the board and management on the impact of AI on society.
According to the company, Bernanke had long studied the financial crisis and had taken over the Fed during the 2008 global financial crisis, an experience that had helped the company to assess the impact of AI on the job market and the wider economy.
The time of the appointment is the time of the valuation debate.
At the time of the appointment, discussions were continuing on whether AI industry valuations were overheating. As large amounts of money went into artificial intelligence, some investors and economists began to compare the current heat with previous rounds of asset bubbles.
Chief Executive Hoang In-hoon said earlier this year that as OpenAI and Anthropic moved closer to a potential listing phase, Britain’s estimated investment in both companies has been substantial. This statement was also made in the context of outside discussions on AI valuation levels.
Previous experience with export control fluctuations
Prior to this personnel adjustment, there was a policy friction between Anthropic and Trump. Last month, the United States Department of Commerce briefly included the company ' s latest AI model in the scope of export controls and subsequently withdrew its decision after Anthropic added additional security measures and reached an understanding with United States officials.
Bernanke has consistently rated the United States financial history differently. He chaired the Fed from 2006 to 2014 and experienced the collapse of the United States real estate market and the resulting global financial crisis.
Proponents argue that his interventions in the crisis helped to avert a more severe economic downturn, while critics argue that the regulatory hierarchy failed to identify risks in a timely manner before the crisis and that part of post-crisis decision-making has long been controversial.
Additional information:Bernanke was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2022 for his study of the banking system and the financial crisis.