CNAS Expert Tangled in High-Tech Conflict of Interest

Here is more from Politico: 

Janet Egan, a tech and national security expert at the Center for a New American Security, last week wrote an op-ed that praised a significant technological shift by artificial intelligence company Anthropic. It was pretty standard fare except for one thing: She didn’t disclose several close connections her think tank has to the company, Daniel L. reports.

— Egan, a senior fellow and deputy director of the technology and national security program at CNAS, wrote an article Sept. 3 in Just Security applauding that Anthropic and Google had moved away from relying exclusively on Nvidia’s chips. Now, Anthropic uses Amazon Web Services’ hardware in addition to Google chips and some Nvidia chips.

— Unmentioned, however, was the fact that in June, CNAS CEO Richard Fontaine was named to Anthropic’s long-term benefit trust, an independent body to help Anthropic achieve its “public benefit mission.” And in August, Fontaine joined the company’s National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council, which helps the company work with governments. Anthropic’s head of global affairs, Michael Sellitto, is also an adjunct senior fellow at the think tank.

— Several major investors in the company have also donated to the think tank. Among other examples, Amazon, which has committed to invest $8 billion in Anthropic, contributed at least half a million dollars to CNAS between October 2023 and September 2024, and AWS gave between $100,000 to $250,000 to the think tank. Google, which has invested more than $3 billion in Anthropic and owns 14 percent of the company, gave between $250,000 and $500,000 to CNAS in that time period.

 

Here is a link to Janet Egan's page at CNAS. 

The Small Think Tank Driving Health Policy Within the GOP

Here is more from Politico:

One small think tank is driving health policy within the GOP. It has also created friction on Capitol Hill and in the White House as Republicans clash over the future of Obamacare.

Paragon Health Institute was established in 2021 and has only 11 full-time staffers, but founder Brian Blase is credited with formulating many of the proposals that became the basis for nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts enacted as part of the GOP megabill. The group’s success is thanks in large part to its vast alumni network spread out across the highest levels of government, from the speaker’s office to the Trump administration.

The conservative activist orbit has responded favorably to Paragon’s work. According to tax records obtained by InfluenceWatch, Stand Together — a right-leaning organization connected to Charles Koch — donated $2 million in 2021; the 85 Fund, which has ties to the conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo, gave $1 million in 2022. 

Paragon’s influence is also reflected in its alumni network, with think tank veterans now serving in prominent places throughout the Trump administration — from Theo Merkel at the Domestic Policy Council to Abe Sutton, who leads the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, and Marty Makary, the head of the Food and Drug Administration.

Joel Zinberg, a former director for a public health initiative at Paragon, was tapped by Trump in January to serve on the National Economic Council with a focus on health care and deregulation.

Paragon itself also counts several health policy heavyweights among its advisers, including the Economic Policy Innovation Center’s Paul Winfree, American Enterprise Institute’s Yuval Levin and the Ronald Reagan Institute’s Tevi Troy.

 

Here is a link to the Paragon Health Institute. 

New Dem Think Tank Hopes to Curb Left's Sway

Here is more from the Washington Post:

As Democrats search for their way out of the political wilderness, a new think tank, introduced on Wednesday, has some ideas about where the party went wrong.

Among them: too much emphasis on issues like climate change and L.G.B.T.Q. rights, and far too much deference to the powerful liberal organizations championing those causes at the expense, some argue, of appealing to voters in battleground states.

The think tank, the Searchlight Institute, was started by Adam Jentleson, a veteran Democratic operative.

Searchlight, Mr. Jentleson said, is starting with an annual budget of $10 million and a staff of seven in its Capitol Hill office. The organization is subsidized by a roster of billionaire donors highlighted by Stephen Mandel, a hedge fund manager, and Eric Laufer, a real estate investor. Its name is a homage to the dusty Nevada hometown of Senator Harry Reid, for whom Mr. Jentleson, 44, served as a senior aide. 

 

Here is a link to the new think tank. 

Think Tank Quickies (#523)

• China detains senior diplomat who had recently embraced US think tanks, such as the Asia Society. 
• Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined the board of the Center for American Progress (CAP), and gets blasted by Dem-aligned think tank.
• Conservative think tank executive Stewart Whitson, of Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), loses in VA-11 special election. 
• Eric Denece, director of the French think tank CF2R, found dead.
• Are some of the worst allegations about Qatari influence on campuses the result of a coordinated campaign of distortion led primarily by third-party advocacy groups such as the think tank Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy?
• The Heritage Foundation is set to propose sweeping revisions to US economic policy meant to encourage married heterosexual couples to have more children.
• The Edmund Burke Foundation: "A DC-based conservative think tank." 
• How Trump's think tank allies are exporting illiberalism. 
• Hoover Institution senior fellows playing big role fighting Trump's tariffs. 
• New Diplomacy Initiative (ND), "a think tank that collects and distributes information and advocates policy options in the US and Japan as well as throughout East Asia in order to promote a New Diplomacy between politicians, independent experts, businesses, and civil society."