Anthropic appoints Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar to its independent trust

Anthropic on Tuesday announced it has appointed legal and international affairs expert Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar to its Long-Term Benefit Trust, the company’s independent governance structure that selects Anthropic’s board members and advises leadership.

Cuéllar has served in three U.S. presidential administrations, acted as a Justice of the Supreme Court of California and chairs the board of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, according to a release. He is also the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, but will step down from that position in July to take on leadership roles at Stanford University.

“As AI capabilities advance at an unprecedented pace, the need for governance structures that marry private sector dynamism with civic responsibility has never been more urgent,” Cuéllar said in a statement.

In addition to Cuéllar’s appointment to the Trust, Anthropic announced Tuesday that two other members, Evidence Action CEO Kanika Bahl and Centre for Effective Altruism CEO Zachary Robinson, have concluded their terms.

Bahl and Robinson had been members of the Trust since it was created, Anthropic said.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI research executives, and while an early version of the Long-Term Benefit Trust was written into its Series A investment documents, the company unveiled the details of the body in 2023.

Members of the Trust do not have a financial stake in Anthropic, which has seen its valuation swell to $350 billion.

New trustees are selected by existing trustees in consultation with the company, Anthropic said Tuesday, and the group aims to help the company “maximize the benefits of advanced AI and mitigate its risks.”

Anthropic has described the Trust as “an experiment” that could eventually be subject to change.

“As AI systems become more capable, we need leaders who have spent their careers thinking deeply about technology’s role in society,” Anthropic President Daniela Amodei said in a statement. “We’re also extremely grateful to Kanika Bahl and Zach Robinson for their contributions during the Trust’s formative period—it would not be where it is today without them.”

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