One applicant — who spoke to Axios on the condition of anonymity for fear of hurting future job opportunities — recalled being asked how they would feel if the company someday abandoned its AI ambitions for safety reasons, and that decision sent the stock to zero.
Is that a scoop? I thought that was a well known thing with Anthropic interview process. They were very transparent about it beforehand from what I remember.
On HN I’ve said things very critical of the company but that’s really not one of them, overall they had a pretty good (but intense and time consuming) interview process. I don’t understand the value of that article
It’s becoming trendy to hate on Anthropic these days but their AI security record speaks for itself for years. Every AI safety benchmark/paper I’ve seen since sonnet became viable placed them far ahead of all other providers - marketing ploy or not (ala Apple “privacy” focus) the company has always had as part of their DNA thus far.
This paternalistic "safety" "DNA" is ultimately just marketing and a market capture strategy.
1) Propagandize the "dangers" of AI, stage a few incidents, talk up the risks ("it bypassed our most stringent checks! it's so smart!")
2) Build some thin veneer of "safety" and industry "self-policing."
3) Lobby for AI safety "regulation" - which you've conveniently already got an answer to! Be sure to make the regulations expensive, onerous, and impossible for foreign organizations to comply with.
I don’t think so, I think Amodei and the early employees do believe what they say. It’s still worth criticizing but I don’t think it’s as simple as „just marketing“. But with the company growing and their insane valuation it’s clear it’s morphing into something else
If you look at Amodei writing and publishing before Anthropic he was already a true believer, he seems to be ideologically driven. That doesn’t mean it’s good though, I’m very suspicious of Anthropic leadership, and they have pretty much everything they need to develop a cult following, making them dangerous
It would be a decent interview question if such a large portion of compensation did not come from equity.
Otherwise it's basically the same as asking how someone would feel if all the sudden they lost 50% or more of their wealth. No one feels okay about that, except maybe the delusional few.
The issue is that Anthropic is just one company and China doesn't care in the slightest - so it's an entirely moot point and almost narcissistic (on Anthropic's part) to believe that they can have any impact whatsoever on this situation.
This is why I don't expect Anthropic to stop, and so I don't expect the value of the company to go to zero.
But the question is conditional on them deciding to, which (to the extent you trust Anthropic leadership which they're probably also filtering for in interviews) is conditional on believing that a decision that sent their stock to 0 would have a real impact.
The irony is of course that China is going so fast because of Anthropic, by diluting their models and learning from them. would make for a fantastic Greek tragedy if we weren’t talking about something that impacts the entire world economy and societies
Have you ever actually seen the inside of most Chinese manufacturing operations? The lack of PPE is astonishing. The lack of safety interlocks, protective features, etc. on their equipment is equally incredible. Safety simply isn't a cultural goal.
Spend 5 minutes with DeepSeek, spend 5 minutes with Fable, see how many rejections you get with DeepSeek for the exact same prompts. Sure, if you engineer some nuclear/biological/WMD prompt, they might block it, but they won't reason to do so.
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Is that a scoop? I thought that was a well known thing with Anthropic interview process. They were very transparent about it beforehand from what I remember.
On HN I’ve said things very critical of the company but that’s really not one of them, overall they had a pretty good (but intense and time consuming) interview process. I don’t understand the value of that article
I wasn't aware this was known information, but had I not, I would have assumed this was some 4D PR manoeuvre.
It’s becoming trendy to hate on Anthropic these days but their AI security record speaks for itself for years. Every AI safety benchmark/paper I’ve seen since sonnet became viable placed them far ahead of all other providers - marketing ploy or not (ala Apple “privacy” focus) the company has always had as part of their DNA thus far.
This paternalistic "safety" "DNA" is ultimately just marketing and a market capture strategy.
1) Propagandize the "dangers" of AI, stage a few incidents, talk up the risks ("it bypassed our most stringent checks! it's so smart!")
2) Build some thin veneer of "safety" and industry "self-policing."
3) Lobby for AI safety "regulation" - which you've conveniently already got an answer to! Be sure to make the regulations expensive, onerous, and impossible for foreign organizations to comply with.
4) Profit.
I don’t think so, I think Amodei and the early employees do believe what they say. It’s still worth criticizing but I don’t think it’s as simple as „just marketing“. But with the company growing and their insane valuation it’s clear it’s morphing into something else
Talk is cheap.
Sam Bankman-Fried was a loudly vocal proponent of Effective Altruism.
If you look at Amodei writing and publishing before Anthropic he was already a true believer, he seems to be ideologically driven. That doesn’t mean it’s good though, I’m very suspicious of Anthropic leadership, and they have pretty much everything they need to develop a cult following, making them dangerous
It would be a decent interview question if such a large portion of compensation did not come from equity.
Otherwise it's basically the same as asking how someone would feel if all the sudden they lost 50% or more of their wealth. No one feels okay about that, except maybe the delusional few.
Personally I'd trade 50% of my wealth for a significantly large decrease in the chance that AI gets us all killed.
And you'd be okay with Anthropic being the ones that determine what "significantly large" means?
The issue is that Anthropic is just one company and China doesn't care in the slightest - so it's an entirely moot point and almost narcissistic (on Anthropic's part) to believe that they can have any impact whatsoever on this situation.
This is why I don't expect Anthropic to stop, and so I don't expect the value of the company to go to zero.
But the question is conditional on them deciding to, which (to the extent you trust Anthropic leadership which they're probably also filtering for in interviews) is conditional on believing that a decision that sent their stock to 0 would have a real impact.
The irony is of course that China is going so fast because of Anthropic, by diluting their models and learning from them. would make for a fantastic Greek tragedy if we weren’t talking about something that impacts the entire world economy and societies
Funny how people still consider China to be the party who doesn't care about safety.
Have you ever actually seen the inside of most Chinese manufacturing operations? The lack of PPE is astonishing. The lack of safety interlocks, protective features, etc. on their equipment is equally incredible. Safety simply isn't a cultural goal.
Spend 5 minutes with DeepSeek, spend 5 minutes with Fable, see how many rejections you get with DeepSeek for the exact same prompts. Sure, if you engineer some nuclear/biological/WMD prompt, they might block it, but they won't reason to do so.
This reads to me like an "exploitability" metric more than anything.
This rough question has been in the culture interview since at least 2021.
Would your wife Email people to fund her company? Answer correctly and youre hired bub
I don't agree with some things Anthropic does but that is a cool thing.
Isn't the obvious response that they should offer a comparable comp package without any sort of stock aspect?
In my experience hype driven companies are very resistant to that even when equity/cash ratio offered is more sane.
"anonymity, for fear of hurting future job opportunities"
Ah yes, this screams morality. We're in good hands, folks!
Nothing said that this candidate was actually hired by Anthropic, just that he or she applied.