Anthropic announces ‘Anthropic Institute’ to study AI risks and impact on society

Anthropic launched Anthropic Institute, a new research body, on March 11. This new team will be dedicated to studying and communicating the societal, economic, and legal impact of artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. The announcement comes as the startup predicts major breakthroughs in AI in the next two years. 

Alongside the new research body, Anthropic is also expanding its public policy presence.

Anthropic in the blog post acknowledges that the technology is moving rapidly. “AI progress has moved incredibly quickly,” the blog stated. It further added that  “We predict that far more dramatic progress will follow in the next two years.”

The Anthropic Institute will study the impact and challenges posed by powerful AI systems across jobs, economies, and global risks. In addition, the body will examine issues such as AI values, governance, and potential self-improving systems. 

Anthropic Institute team 

Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark will be heading the Anthropic Institute, and he will also be taking the new role as the company's Head of Public Benefit.  

The team will further consist of machine learning engineers, economists, and social scientists, and it also plans to combine three existing research groups from Anthropic: Frontier Red Team, Societal Impacts, and Economic Research.

Anthropic has also hired several new prominent researchers, including Matt Botvinick, who will lead efforts focused on AI and legal systems. Economist Anton Korinek, who will explore how transformative AI could reshape economic activity, and Zoë Hitzig, who will focus on linking economic insights with the training and development of AI models.

Anthropic Institute: Key role

The newly built team will be leveraging Anthropic's efforts, insights and data to report or spot threats as well as opportunities of AI. With the data, it plans to share insights about what the company learns while developing these frontier AI technologies. 

The team will also collaborate with workers, industries, and communities that may be affected by AI. These findings will then be made available to researchers and the public during the transition to advanced AI. Doing so will help society to prepare for the rapid changes linked to transformative AI and help address the risks.

Anthropic’s updated public policy

Anthropic announced that it is expanding its public policy team and also opening its first Washington DC office this spring.

The company named Sarah Heck as “Head of Public Policy.” Heck joined Anthropic as Head of External Affairs and previously led global entrepreneurship and public diplomacy policy at the White House National Security Council.

Furthermore, the company plans to hire more talent across analytical and research roles.