Anthropic has appointed Richard Fontaine, a national security expert, to its long-term benefit trust, one day after announcing the development of new AI models for U.S. national security applications.
Anthropic’s long-term benefit trust is a governance mechanism that holds the authority to elect a portion of the company’s board of directors and is purported to assist in the promotion of safety over profit.
Centre for Effective Altruism CEO Zachary Robinson, Clinton Health Access Initiative CEO Neil Buddy Shah, and Evidence Action President Kanika Bahl are the other members of the trust.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated in a statement that Fontaine’s appointment will “[strengthen] the trust’s capacity to assist Anthropic in making complex decisions” regarding AI in the context of security.
Amodei continued, “Richard’s expertise is particularly valuable at this juncture, as national security considerations are increasingly intermingled with advanced AI capabilities.”
“I have long held the conviction that it is imperative for both global security and the common good that democratic nations maintain leadership in responsible AI development.”
Fontaine, who will not have a financial interest in Anthropic as a trustee, was previously a foreign policy adviser to the late Sen. John McCain and an adjunct professor at Georgetown, where she taught security studies.
For more than six years, he served as the president of the Center for A New American Security, a national security think tank located in Washington, D.C.
As it seeks new revenue streams, Anthropic has become more involved with U.S. national security customers.
In November, the company formed a partnership with Palantir and AWS, the cloud computing division of Amazon, its primary partner and investor, to distribute Anthropic’s AI to defense customers.
It is important to note that Anthropic is not the sole leading AI facility that is pursuing defense contracts.
Meta has recently disclosed that it is providing its Llama models to defense partners in order to forge a more intimate partnership with the U.S. Defense Department.
In the interim, Google is enhancing a version of its Gemini AI that is capable of operating in classified environments, and Cohere, which specializes in the development of AI products for businesses, is also collaborating with Palantir to deploy its AI models.
Fontaine’s appointment coincides with Anthropic’s expansion of its executive team. Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix, was appointed to the company’s board in May.
