Anthropic plans to brief 2028 presidential candidates on AI
A dedicated team is to advise candidates from both major US parties on AI and run the company's political giving. Critics see it mainly as lobbying.
Archive image · Photo: UK Prime Minister (Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
AI company Anthropic is setting up a programme to engage with candidates ahead of the 2028 US presidential election. Fortune magazine reported this on 8 October, citing a job posting. An in-house team is to work directly with candidates from both parties on AI issues, support the company's leadership on political strategy and run its political giving programme.
Anthropic is looking for a lead with at least twelve years of experience in campaigns or party organisations; the posting lists a salary of $295,000 to $345,000 a year. The posting says every serious candidate and elected official in both parties should understand the technology. In April Anthropic had already set up an employee-funded political action committee.
Bruce F. Freed of the Center for Political Accountability sees the programme mainly as an attempt to shape or stave off regulation. California State Senator Steve Padilla warned that "education and influence are not the same thing", adding that the public deserves to know where one ends and the other begins.