Former Fed Chief Joins Anthropic’s Oversight Body

Former Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke has joined Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust to advise on the economic and labor impacts of advanced AI.

Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust (LTBT) welcomes Ben Bernanke, former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve and Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution. The role of this independent body is to ensure that Anthropic adheres to its mission of responsibly developing advanced AI.

Bernanke led the Fed from 2006 to 2014, steering it through the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent recovery. An academic economist for over twenty years, including a long tenure at Princeton where he chaired the economics department, he built a body of work on the Great Depression and the role of banks in financial crises—work that earned him the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2022. His appointment is primarily intended to inform one of the subjects Anthropic is closely studying: the impact of AI on the economy and the labor market.

The LTBT is presented as independent of the company's management and investors: its members hold no equity, receive no share of profits, and are compensated only for their time. They are co-opted by existing members in consultation with the company. The body can appoint directors to Anthropic's board and advises management on sensitive decisions, particularly those related to the risks and societal impacts of AI. Bernanke joins Neil Buddy Shah, Richard Fontaine, and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, whose backgrounds span global health, national security, law, and public policy.