Anthropic's long-term benefit trust just added a heavy hitter: former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke. The trust acts as an independent oversight body, tasked with making sure that as Anthropic builds ever more advanced AI, it doesn't forget about the public good.
The trust's members don't hold any equity in Anthropic and don't share in its profits. What they do have is serious teeth — they can appoint or remove a majority of the company's board, and they advise on AI risks, social impact, and major decisions.
Bernanke ran the Fed from 2006 to 2014 and won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2022. Anthropic says he'll focus on studying how AI affects jobs and the global economy.