Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who steered the U.S. economy through the 2008 global financial crisis, has joined Anthropic’s independent oversight body, the company announced Thursday. The Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust is designed to ensure the AI firm develops advanced artificial intelligence for the long-term benefit of humanity, and it has the authority to appoint board members and advise on AI’s societal impact.
Bernanke becomes one of four members of the Trust, alongside social entrepreneur Neil Buddy Shah, former national security official Richard Fontaine, and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, a former intelligence advisor to President Joe Biden. Anthropic stated that Bernanke’s expertise in studying financial crises and managing the economy during turbulent periods will help assess AI’s effects on workforces and the broader economy.
In a statement, Bernanke said, “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.”
His appointment arrives amid investor concerns that the massive capital flowing into AI resembles the speculative excesses of past market booms. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently indicated the chipmaker is likely finished making major investments in OpenAI and Anthropic as both companies move toward possible public listings, fueling debate over whether AI valuations have entered bubble territory. The move also follows a brief period of export controls on Anthropic’s newest AI models by the Commerce Department, which were reversed after the company introduced additional safeguards.
Bernanke, who led the Fed from 2006 to 2014, remains a polarizing figure. While some economists credit his crisis interventions with preventing a deeper collapse, critics blame regulators for failing to spot mounting risks before the housing market crashed. He was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on banks and financial crises.
