Former Fed Chief Ben Bernanke Joins Anthropic’s Watchdog Group

Former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke joined Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust (LTBT), an independent body that works to hold Anthropic to its mission of responsibly developing artificial intelligence for the long-term benefit of humanity.

Bernanke led the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014, earned a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2022, and is a Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Anthropic said in a Wednesday (July 9) press release.

As a trustee in the LTBT, Bernanke will lend his insight to Anthropic’s economic research and other areas of the company’s work and bring his expertise to how AI is changing the economy, according to the release.

Anthropic Co-Founder and President Daniela Amodei said in the release that Anthropic has responsibilities to understand and act on the economic effects of AI.

“Ben’s career has run from studying how economies react to disruptive moments to helping steer the world’s largest economy through one such time,” Amodei said. “His judgment will make us better at anticipating and responding to how advanced AI affects workforces and economies around the world.”

Bernanke said in the release that the way the potential of AI plays out will depend in part on the institutions around the technology.

“Anthropic has created a unique governance structure to try to ensure that the long-run benefits of AI for humanity far outweigh the risks,” Bernanke said. “I am honored to have this opportunity, and I will try to contribute in any way I can to this critical mission.”

New LTBT trustees are selected by the existing ones, in consultation with Anthropic, and are chosen for their expertise. All trustees are independent of Anthropic’s management and investors, and they are compensated only for their time and service, with no equity in the company and no share of its profits, according to the release.

The other trustees are Neil Buddy Shah, CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative; Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for a New American Security; and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Cameron Schrier professor of law and director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Shah, who is chair of the LTBT, said in the release that Bernanke led the Federal Reserve through the worst financial crisis in nearly a century “with expertise, independence and sound judgment.”

“That’s the standard we look for in trustees as AI’s impact grows, and we’re fortunate Ben has chosen to join us in this work,” Shah said.

Anthropic also announced Thursday that it added a reflection dashboard to Claude to help users understand and refine how they use the AI platform and that the company launched a hard questions website that lets users ask Anthropic about the impact of AI on jobs, society and families.

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