How Anthropic Became Holier Than Thou
6/5/202650 min
This week, Anthropic filed for an IPO following a valuation of nearly $1 trillion, which would make it one of the largest IPOs in history. On this week’s On the Media, the company’s marketing campaign to position it as the “good guy” of AI. Plus, what a literary AI scandal reveals about our vanishing ability to tell what’s human and what’s not.
[01:00] Micah speaks with Brian Merchant, a tech journalist and author of the book and newsletter Blood in the Machine, about Anthropic’s successful positioning of itself as the “ethical AI company,” even gaining themselves a seat at the table when the Pope debuted his encyclical on AI, and how fostering this image seems to be paying off in the form of a massive valuation and upcoming IPO.
[16:18] Micah sits down with Vauhini Vara, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and the author of Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, on the infiltration of AI into literature, and how publishing and journalism have entered a new era of trying to keep AI writing at bay.
[27:51] Brooke talks with David Garrett, founder of the new non-profit the Institute for Primary Facts, about the pop-up exhibit he organized in New York City that displayed over 3,400 printed volumes of the Epstein files, and how he intends it to be a “pressure campaign” for accountability. Plus, Andrea Sterling, an online content creator and a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, on the impact of seeing the files in real life.
Further reading:
- “How Anthropic used AI ethics slop to play the pope and eclipse OpenAI,” by Brian Merchant
- “This Literary AI Scandal Changes Everything,” by Vauhini Vara
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
[upbeat music] When the Pope released his AI encyclical, the co-founder of Anthropic sat beside him and gave a speech.
Chris Olah· Soundbite0:09
How will we ensure that the gains of AI are shared globally? It is an unsolved problem.
Speaker 10:13
But is it really?
Brian Merchant· Guest0:15
We have historically proven tools that are actually pretty good at redistributing wealth and power. They're called taxes.
Speaker 10:23
How Anthropic markets itself as a moral leader. From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
Micah Loewinger· Host0:31
And I'm Michael Olinger. Also on this week's show, we visit an Epstein files reading room displaying printouts of 3.5 million files, 17,000 pounds of evidence.
David Garrett· Guest0:43
The first printer that we sent this project to came back and said, "We work with a lot of lawyers. We're really worried that if they find out that we printed this, they're not gonna work with us anymore."
Micah Loewinger· Host0:53
It's all coming up after this.
Speaker 10:55
[upbeat music] From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
Micah Loewinger· Host1:04
And I'm Michael Olinger. [gentle music] On Tuesday of this week, yet another executive order.
Speaker 6· Soundbite1:10
Trump just signed an executive order this morning centered on government access to advanced artificial intelligence.
Speaker 7· Soundbite1:16
It lays the foundation out for federal testing of the world's most powerful AI systems before they're publicly released. Now, the testing would rely on voluntary collaboration from the nation's top AI companies.
Micah Loewinger· Host1:28
This after