NEW YORK (AP) — As they head toward massive IPOs on Wall Street, companies on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence have begun sketching out plans to share their wealth with the public — a commitment they say is imperative to confronting the disruption the technology could bring to workforces and people’s livelihoods.
Executives at Anthropic and OpenAI have long argued that the arrival of technology will bring many benefits to ordinary people, and they have promised that this will include a share of the profits. Companies are presenting a series of proposals to distribute AI fortunes, but so far they have not resolved key questions about how they will work, how transparent they will be and who will determine the beneficiaries.
On Sunday, Anthropic announced it would commit 5% of its shares to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, a new entity within the company, pending shareholder approval. The stake could increase “as the company grows” in the future. AI assistant creator Claude said the fund “may explore” larger donations to traditional nonprofits or potentially distribute money to “specific populations.”
The San Francisco-based company has shared little information about the types of organizations the fund supports and the issues they will address. One area it will not support, Anthropic said, is lobbying and political donations.
Phil Buchanan, president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, said he welcomed Anthropic’s commitment, especially at a time when he said some billionaires are “diminishing the importance of philanthropy.” But he warned that Anthropic should avoid the “arrogance” of previous tech barons who thought their professional expertise would translate into philanthropic wisdom.
Buchanan recommended that the fund support highly effective existing nonprofits, but said it was “difficult to talk about all that because it’s all too abstract.”
“I guess I’m hopeful,” Buchanan said, “but I’m not going to get too excited until I see some evidence of what’s really going on.”
Anthropic’s commitment depends on Wall Street’s plans
Anthropic, which was valued at nearly $1 trillion earlier this year, is gearing up for an IPO as early as next month that is shaping up to be one of the largest ever.
Once a company goes public, donations can be made through future stock sales, or potentially as cash dividends in the future, explained Jay R. Ritter, director of the IPO Initiative at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business. Details of how charitable donations will be made through the Anthropic fund are not yet clear.
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