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.
