In the so-called "constitution" for its chatbot Claude, AI company Anthropic claims that it's committed to principles based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, instructing its chatbot to prioritize freedom, equality, freedom of thought, and adequate standards of living in its responses.
Anthropic has long attempted to distinguish itself as putting safety first. The firm was founded by former OpenAI members, with a commitment to advancing AI ethically and responsibly.
But four years on, the company's human leaders are now singing a dramatically different tune. As Wired reports, CEO Dario Amodei acknowledged in a Slack message that taking funding from Middle East leaders — which Anthropic is poised to do, with entreaties to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — would line the pockets of "dictators."
"This is a real downside and I'm not thrilled about it," Amodei wrote. "Unfortunately, I think ‘No bad person should ever benefit from our success’ is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on."
Amodei's remarks highlight how even AI companies that banked on ethical practices are increasingly abandoning those goals as they race to secure funding for enormous — and incredibly environmentally damaging — AI infrastructure expansion projects.
Even Anthropic, which has long touted itself as a more ethical alternative to the likes of OpenAI, is giving in to the temptation of accepting Gulf State money.
That's despite Amodei citing national security concerns for denying Saudi Arabian funds last year.
In a major reversal, the CEO is seeing the dollar signs — and simply can't let his conscience win yet again.
"There is a truly giant amount of capital in the Middle East, easily $100B or more," Amodei wrote in the Slack messages, as quoted by Wired.
"If we want to stay on the frontier, we gain a very large benefit from having access to this capital," he wrote. "Without it, it is substantially harder to stay on the frontier."
... continue reading