I’m kind of confused by the emphasis on the Trust rather than the board.
On the Trust: does the Trust do anything besides elect some board members (and sometimes advise the board)? Especially hard powers? How can the Trust’s powers be modified?
On the board: what does the board do, especially hard powers? What decisions is it consulted about? How is it informed? (Who is on the board now?)
Put another way: Anthropic is talking like the Trust is great corporate governance and will help Anthropic predictably act responsibly. I tentatively believe that — in part because I mostly trust Anthropic; maybe in part because I expect some Trustees wouldn’t have joined if they thought the Trust was a sham. But the information I know—basically just that the Trust will be able to elect a majority of the board in a few years, and it’s not clear what could cause the Trust to lose its powers—only weakly demonstrates that the Trust is great.
The role of the Trust is to elect (and potentially replace) board members; its formal power comes entirely from the fact that it will eventually elect a majority of the board seats.
The post mentions a “failsafe” where a supermajority of investors can amend this arrangement, which I think is a reasonable compromise. But I’m not aware of any public information about what that supermajority is, or whether there are other ways the Trust’s formal powers could be reduced.
Dylan Matthews reports the members of the board here: Dario, Daniela, Luke Meulhauser, and Yasmin Razavi. (I think it’s also listed plenty of other places.)
Exciting.
I’m kind of confused by the emphasis on the Trust rather than the board.
On the Trust: does the Trust do anything besides elect some board members (and sometimes advise the board)? Especially hard powers? How can the Trust’s powers be modified?
On the board: what does the board do, especially hard powers? What decisions is it consulted about? How is it informed? (Who is on the board now?)
Put another way: Anthropic is talking like the Trust is great corporate governance and will help Anthropic predictably act responsibly. I tentatively believe that — in part because I mostly trust Anthropic; maybe in part because I expect some Trustees wouldn’t have joined if they thought the Trust was a sham. But the information I know—basically just that the Trust will be able to elect a majority of the board in a few years, and it’s not clear what could cause the Trust to lose its powers—only weakly demonstrates that the Trust is great.
The role of the Trust is to elect (and potentially replace) board members; its formal power comes entirely from the fact that it will eventually elect a majority of the board seats.
The post mentions a “failsafe” where a supermajority of investors can amend this arrangement, which I think is a reasonable compromise. But I’m not aware of any public information about what that supermajority is, or whether there are other ways the Trust’s formal powers could be reduced.
Dylan Matthews reports the members of the board here: Dario, Daniela, Luke Meulhauser, and Yasmin Razavi. (I think it’s also listed plenty of other places.)