SAN FRANCISCO (AP) 鈥� Anthropic will donate $150 million to launch a fellowship program that places people early in their careers with nonprofits around the country to help them use more effectively in their work.
Claude Corps, named for the company鈥檚 popular AI chatbot, will hire and embed 1,000 fellows trained in the use of Claude at a wide range of organizations for a year. Anthropic President Daniela Amodei told The Associated Press the company hopes the program will expand and become a pillar of its strategy to help humankind realize the benefits of AI while also managing its risks.
Amodei said Claude Corps will be evaluated after its first year to see if it should continue and expand.
鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping it鈥檚 a good idea that can take root and that other people can build on and learn from, whether that鈥檚 public or private,鈥� Amodei said in an interview at Anthropic headquarters in San Francisco. 鈥淏ut I think my hope is that we鈥檒l learn, the people who do it will learn, and we鈥檒l be able to come back and do it again next time even better.鈥�
Anthropic’s commitment includes paying the Claude Corps members and providing at least 400 host organizations with a $10,000 grant and free credits to use Claude.
Anthropic says it wants to balance profits and social impact
Philanthropy is built into the way Anthropic鈥檚 co-founders believe the company should be run, Amodei said. Amodei, her brother Dario, who is Anthropic鈥檚 CEO, and the company鈥檚 five other co-founders have already pledged that they will donate 80% of their wealth. They established Anthropic as a public benefit corporation, a designation that for-profit companies select to balance financial goals and social impact.
Anthropic, which is valued at $965 billion, is moving toward on Wall Street, announcing earlier this month it submitted a confidential filing for an initial public offering.
Amodei, interviewed before the SEC filing, said she could not comment about IPO plans but said the company鈥檚 values are very clear to anyone looking to invest in it.
鈥淭here鈥檚 decisions and choices that we might make that might feel in conflict with just the pure commercial interests of the business and we鈥檙e going to be really open about that,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think we have been very well served by our inclination to just be very honest about who we are because people who like that really like us. And for people, if it鈥檚 not what they like, they don鈥檛 work with us. And I think that鈥檚 actually better for everyone.鈥�
Anthropic has been outspoken about the risks inherent to the breakthrough technology. It warned last week that companies should development of advanced AI systems if humans risk losing control of the self-improving technology. It collaborated with Pope Leo XIV as he developed and the need for increased regulation. And it found itself in a with President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration when Anthropic refused to allow the U.S. military unrestricted use of its AI technology.
Amodei said Anthropic is an 鈥渦nusual鈥� company because its business teams and research teams are run separately.
鈥淪ometimes research says things like 鈥楢I is doing bad things鈥� and we really want to be open about what those things are,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ecause I don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 a way for the broader community that is the world to adapt to these changes if we don鈥檛 understand the challenges.鈥�
Bella DeVaan, director of the Charity Reform Initiative at the progressive research organization the Institute of Policy Studies, said she is skeptical that any AI company will willingly set aside enough of its profits to support all the people affected by the adoption of AI.
鈥淭he fox can’t guard the henhouse,鈥� said DeVaan, who has studied the donations of the ultra-rich. 鈥淭hey can鈥檛 be responsible for their own regulation or for their own definition of what their altruistic mandate is. That has to be determined by the public.鈥�
Like Pope Leo outlined in his encyclical, DeVaan is calling for more stringent government regulation of AI companies. Without government intervention, she worries AI will create a permanent underclass of workers. She said governments also need to do their own research about the potential benefits and harms of AI rather than leaving it up to the AI companies.
Anthropic announced separately Wednesday that it will to support an economic framework to help workers displaced by AI. It will start with investment into studying the issues created by AI adoption.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 understand what the societal disruption might look like if we don鈥檛 study it, publish it and talk about it,鈥� Amodei said.
Claude Corps aims to enlist AI-minded people early in their careers
To create Claude Corps, Anthropic partnered with CodePath, the San Francisco-based nonprofit created to help first-generation and low-income students enter the tech workforce through higher education courses and career support.
CodePath CEO Michael Ellison said he had long been thinking about redesigning AmeriCorps to account for AI adoption. The federal agency for volunteer service was last year.
鈥淚 think we need programs that are meeting folks where they are when you鈥檙e looking at the traditional late adopters 鈥� from nonprofits to governments, to schools,鈥� Ellison said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e putting humans into the organizations that serve the majority of Americans as a way to bring them along and bring our communities along.鈥�
He said CodePath will manage the initiative, which will accept fellowship applications through July 17. Ellison said the fellowship will be available to a wide range of young people early in their careers.
鈥淲e are intentionally trying to be extremely accessible,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not requiring that you have a certain degree. We want the initial group of fellows to be representative of a broad section of the population in this country.鈥�
Jennifer Blatz, CEO and president of StriveTogether, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit network that helps prepare young people for better economic opportunities, said she was thrilled her organization was chosen to host two Claude Corps fellows.
Though her nonprofit already uses AI to analyze some of the data it gathers on the impact of its programs, she hopes that Claude Corps can help standardize its usage in her organization and throughout its network, which spans 27 states. Blatz said she wants both her network and the people it supports to understand 鈥淎I is a tool 鈥� not the whole strategy.鈥�
鈥淎I can help us work smarter, but trust building and community collaboration, that鈥檚 a deeply human part of the work,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 not going away just because we use this tool.鈥�
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