Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, has launched a new initiative called 'Hard Questions' to better understand and address public concerns about artificial intelligence. The company is asking people to submit their most pressing questions about AI's impact on jobs, society, families, science, and medicine.
In a blog post, Anthropic acknowledged that while many people are optimistic about AI's potential to reduce labor, accelerate scientific progress, and solve major problems, others hold serious concerns. These include fears about job loss, devaluation of creative work, erosion of human agency, and the risk of AI capabilities falling into the wrong hands.
As a Public Benefit Corporation, Anthropic says its mission is to secure the benefits of advanced AI and mitigate risks. The company has already taken steps such as investing in safeguards, researching model behavior, providing free AI tools to scientists, and launching a fellowship program pairing early-career Claude users with nonprofits.
To inform its efforts, Anthropic has conducted extensive research: a public survey of 52,000 Americans (the Anthropic Public Record), a survey of 81,000 Claude users across 159 countries, dozens of in-person focus groups, and analysis of anonymized Claude usage data. The company also established the Anthropic Institute to confront major AI challenges and the Long-Term Benefit Trust for impartial oversight.
Now, Anthropic is explicitly asking the public to submit their hardest questions via a dedicated website. In return, the company promises to publicly track and report the specific actions it takes to address those questions, while being clear about where it may fall short of its goals.