Anthropic is not being consistently candid about their connection to EA
webAuthor
burner2
Credibility Rating
3/5
Good(3)Good quality. Reputable source with community review or editorial standards, but less rigorous than peer-reviewed venues.
Rating inherited from publication venue: EA Forum
Relevant to discussions of AI lab governance, organizational transparency, and the relationship between EA-affiliated funders and major AI safety companies like Anthropic.
Forum Post Details
Karma
314
Comments
89
Forum
eaforum
Forum Tags
AI safetyBuilding effective altruismCommunityAnthropicAI governanceCriticism of effective altruismEffective altruism in the media
Metadata
Importance: 38/100opinion piececommentary
Summary
This EA Forum post documents extensive ties between Anthropic and the effective altruism movement, then argues that recent public statements by Anthropic leaders downplaying those connections are misleading and likely reflect a deliberate PR strategy. The author contends this lack of candor is ethically problematic for an organization that claims honesty as a core value.
Key Points
- •Anthropic has deep EA ties: CEO Dario Amodei is a GWWC signatory, co-founder Holden Karnofsky founded Open Philanthropy, and multiple senior staff are EAs.
- •The Long-Term Benefit Trust, which holds special governance power at Anthropic, includes prominent EA figures, further embedding EA influence in the org.
- •Daniela Amodei and Amanda Askell made statements in a Wired article that the author argues misrepresent or minimize Anthropic's organizational connections to EA.
- •The post distinguishes between personal non-identification with EA (acceptable) and organizational misrepresentation (criticized as dishonest).
- •The author suggests Anthropic is distancing itself from EA for reputational reasons following controversies, at the cost of transparency.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic (Funder) | Analysis | 65.0 |
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# Anthropic is not being consistently candid about their connection to EA
By burner2
Published: 2025-03-30
In a recent [Wired article](https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-benevolent-artificial-intelligence/) about Anthropic, there's a section where Anthropic's president, Daniela Amodei, and early employee Amanda Askell seem to suggest there's little connection between Anthropic and the EA movement:
> Ask Daniela about it and she says, "I'm not the expert on effective altruism. I don't identify with that terminology. My impression is that it's a bit of an outdated term". Yet her husband, Holden Karnofsky, cofounded one of EA's most conspicuous philanthropy wings, is outspoken about AI safety, and, in January 2025, joined Anthropic. Many others also remain engaged with EA. As early employee Amanda Askell puts it, "I definitely have met people here who are effective altruists, but it's not a theme of the organization or anything". (Her ex-husband, William MacAskill, is an originator of the movement.)
This led multiple people on Twitter to call out how bizarre this is:
In my eyes, there is a large and obvious connection between Anthropic and the EA community. In addition to the ties mentioned above:
* Dario, Anthropic’s CEO, was the [43rd signatory](https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/about-us/members#lifetime-members-section) of the Giving What We Can pledge and wrote a [guest post](https://blog.givewell.org/2010/06/03/my-donation-for-2009-guest-post-from-dario-amodei/) for the GiveWell blog. He [also lived in a group house](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/openai-general-support/#id-5-relationship-disclosures) with Holden Karnofsky and Paul Christiano at a time when Paul and Dario were technical advisors to Open Philanthropy.
* Amanda Askell was the [67th signatory](https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/about-us/members#lifetime-members-section) of the GWWC pledge.
* Many early and senior employees identify as effective altruists and/or previously worked for EA organisations
* Anthropic has a "[Long-Term Benefit Trust](https://www.anthropic.com/news/the-long-term-benefit
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