Anthropic, OpenAI Try to Ease Public Anxiety

Artificial intelligence firms spent years hyping their software as world-changing; now they're scrambling to convince people it won't quietly wreck their lives. OpenAI this week rolled out a policy wish list aimed squarely at public anxiety over jobs and inequality, floating ideas like a four-day workweek and a public wealth fund seeded with AI profits and paid out to citizens. Rival Anthropic, meanwhile, has been signing deals with consulting and software firms whose share prices have been hammered by fears they'll be automated away—moves that have helped lift some tech stocks and turned threatened workers into AI promoters. Both companies are also courting private-equity firms that own businesses in automation-vulnerable industries, the Wall Street Journal reports, pitching "AI transformation" as a way to survive the shift.

Polls show attitudes toward AI souring fast. A Quinnipiac survey in March found 55% of Americans believe AI will do more harm than good in their daily lives, up from 44% last year. An NBC News poll gave AI a lower net favorability rating than US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Concerns aren't just about job losses: Research suggests that, in some workplaces, AI adoption has actually increased time spent on email and management tools while shrinking the hours available for focused work. With blanket opposition to regulation now politically risky, AI labs are trying a different tactic: Help write the rules and shape the story. "What's the next best move? It's to place yourself in the driver's seat, and that is what every single one of them is doing," said Amba Kak of the AI Now Institute.

Anthropic has launched an in-house think tank and a "societal-impacts" team to study risks to jobs and social cohesion. OpenAI has bought a tech-friendly podcast, TBPN, which will sit under its top global affairs executive as the industry tries to steer the AI conversation away from dystopia and toward something voters, regulators, and local officials can live with—and ideally, permit to keep building data centers. After digesting the New Yorker's investigation of OpenAI and Sam Altman's leadership, Emma Brockes asked ChatGPT about the risk to her career for an opinion piece in the Guardian. "That's a heavy question," the answer began. More can be found here.