AI regulation battle heats up: Anthropic pledges $20m to rival OpenAI

Anthropic is set to donate $20 million to US political candidates who will vouch for greater AI regulation and transparency ahead of November midterm elections.

According to the company’s statement released on Thursday, the political donation will be made to Public First Action, a political advocacy group that promotes the idea that states should set their own AI guardrails.

Public First was established to rival the super political action committee network, founded by OpenAI’s executives and Andreessen Horowitz.

The group opposes the states being primary laboratories of AI regulation and propagated “federal preemption”, allowing single national law to govern artificial intelligence.

“The companies building AI have a responsibility to help ensure the technology serves the public good, not just their own interests,” the company said.

In the upcoming midterm November elections, AI industry and tech giants will play an important role in shaping the electoral landscape.

It is possible that the issue of governing AI will be at the center of competition.

Having been positioned as “safety-first” AI developer, Anthropic said in a blog post, ““AI is being adopted faster than any technology in history, and the window to get policy right is closing. Yet there are no official guardrails in place and no federal framework on the horizon.”

According to Brad Carson, a former Democratic congressman and co-leader of the group, with the help of Anthropic’s donation and other contributions, Public First will amass $75 million.

Another group named Leading the Future is also in the race as it had raised more than $125 million, as reported by Wall Street Journal.

The group is backed by OpenAI and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and also opposes strict AI regulations at the expense of innovation.