Shocking: Anthropic investors paid reporters to scream about AI apocalypse
It turns out the terrifying AI doomsday headlines might just be a very expensive marketing strategy. A deep dive into the money trail reveals that Anthropic’s backers are essentially paying the media to keep everyone sufficiently terrified.
Independent researcher Kevin Bass uncovered a paper trail that leads straight from Anthropic backer Dustin Moskovitz to the headlines currently keeping the internet awake at night. The scheme relies on a funding loop starting at Good Ventures, which then funnels cash into Coefficient Giving—formerly known as Open Philanthropy.
This money effectively greases the wheels for journalism programs like the Tarbell Center. From there, it trickles down to writers at major outlets like The Verge and TIME, who coincidentally find themselves writing glowing features on the existential dangers posed by non-human intelligence. It seems the most dangerous thing about AI is actually the massive paycheck attached to writing about how dangerous it is.
This is the ultimate grift: manufacturing a moral panic to protect your own investment by ensuring regulators are too scared to touch it. If the path to saving humanity requires a billion-dollar media campaign to keep the plebs trembling, perhaps the threat isn't the code, but the people signing the checks.
Source: Protos
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