Anthropic Gives $40 Million to AI Regulation Group

Anthropic says it has donated $20 million to AI pro-regulation group Public First Action.

The donation, announced Tuesday (July 21), brings the artificial intelligence (AI) startup’s total spending on the group to $40 million, and comes amid increasing debate on how to regulate the technology, and ahead of the fall mid-term elections.

“We’ve long argued that frontier AI companies should be transparent about what their models can do and how they’re managing the risks,” Anthropic said in its announcement.

“We’ve supported newly passed laws in several states that require greater transparency for AI developers. But given how fast the capabilities of the most powerful models are advancing, transparency alone is insufficient.”

Public First Action bills itself as a bipartisan group focused on educating the public on AI. While acknowledging the benefits of the technology, it also campaigns for safety standards, transparency, accountability measures and whistleblower protections for people alerting the public and policymakers about AI-related dangers.

“Both of our donations were made exclusively to support Public First Action’s public education and policy mission, and cannot be used to influence the election of any candidate for federal, state, or local office,” Anthropic said.

A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report Wednesday (July 22) on the donation points out that Public First has positioned itself as a counterweight to the group Leading the Future. That organization, the WSJ said, has a position on AI similar to that of the White House, advocating for industry-friendly rules with lower barriers for development.

The report added that this new commitment could reignite the feud between Anthropic and the White House. The government has already briefly shut down two of the company’s models due to security concerns, with the military labeling Anthropic a security risk, prompting the startup to take legal action.

The WSJ also notes that Anthropic’s critics have argued the company wants to use regulation to hinder competition, and contend CEO Dario Amodei is hypocritical for warning about the dangers while continuing to improve on the company’s models. Amodei and the Anthropic say their concern on model safety is authentic, the report added.

In other AI regulation news, PYMNTS wrote earlier this week about efforts by state attorneys general to police the technology using existing consumer protection, privacy and professional licensing laws to police artificial intelligence.

“The practical message for businesses is that AI compliance cannot wait for Congress or state legislatures to establish comprehensive new frameworks,” that report said.

“Companies should evaluate whether AI deployments comply with existing rules governing privacy, discrimination, advertising, consumer protection, professional services and consequential decision-making.”