Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust (LTBT) has appointed Dr. Ben Bernanke, a Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Chair of the Federal Reserve, as its newest member. He joins an independent body that works to hold Anthropic to its mission: the responsible development of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity.
Bernanke led the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014, steering the central bank through the 2008 global financial crisis and the recovery that followed. Before entering government, he spent more than two decades as an academic economist, much of that time at Princeton, where he chaired the economics department and built a body of research on the Great Depression and the role banks play in financial crises. That work earned him the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2022.
“The potential of artificial intelligence is enormous, and so is the range of outcomes. How that potential plays out will depend, in part, on the institutions we build around it,” said Dr. Bernanke. “Anthropic has created a unique governance structure to try to ensure that the long-run benefits of AI for humanity far outweigh the risks. I am honored to have this opportunity, and I will try to contribute in any way I can to this critical mission.”
“AI may have the most significant economic effects of any technology in modern history, and Anthropic has a dual responsibility to understand those effects and to act on them,” said Daniela Amodei, Co-Founder and President of Anthropic. “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. His judgment will make us better at anticipating and responding to how advanced AI affects workforces and economies around the world.”
Anthropic is a Public Benefit Corporation, meaning the company was created to balance commercial success with generating social and public good. The LTBT exists to help the company responsibly maintain that balance over the long term, providing a check on how Anthropic develops and deploys AI. The Trustees are chosen for their expertise across a wide range of areas, and are independent of the company’s management and investors: they hold no equity in Anthropic, don’t share in its profits, and are compensated only for their time and service. New Trustees are selected by the existing ones, in consultation with the company.
“The institutions built around this technology will matter as much as the technology itself,” added Neil Buddy Shah, Chair of the LTBT. “Ben spent eight years leading the Federal Reserve and guided the country 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.”
The LTBT has the authority to appoint members to Anthropic’s board. The Trustees advise the board and Anthropic’s leadership on critical decisions, particularly those involving the potential risks and societal impacts of AI. Bernanke’s appointment brings expertise to one of the questions Anthropic studies most closely: how AI is changing the economy. He will lend his insight to our economic research, in addition to other areas of Anthropic's work.
Bernanke joins Neil Buddy Shah, Richard Fontaine, and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar on the LTBT. Their collective experience spans global health, national security, law, policy, and economics.