Make money doing the work you believe in
It's easy to assume the worst of people. But if you were the head of Anthropic, what would you do? How would you balance government pressure, less cautious competitors, and bio/cyber risks?
You said it yourself: "Anthropic’s future survival—both industrially and financially—hinges on a successful IPO." This means catering to investors.
I am not saying we should blindly trust politicians and the economic and technological elite. But if we assume everyone is rotten, the already daunting task of building a better world becomes impossible.
We need to start thinking constructively. Want to democratize AI? Work on ways to fund open source models (1,2). Concerned about privacy? Self audit future infrastructure (3). Want an equitable society? Look for political pressure points We the People can actually leverage.
As Dario Amodei said, "The most useful thing [Anthropic] can do is describe to the world what we are seeing... It's left to the public, in a democracy, to drive policy." (4)
We need to master our fear and anger, so we can place our punches where it counts.
