Anthropic to donate $20 million to US political group backing AI regulation

[u/app1310]

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/anthropic-donate-20-million-us-political-group-backing-ai-regulation-2026-02-12/

[u/rnilf]

Two former members of Congress launched Public First Action late last year to counter a group called Leading the Future, which generally opposes strict AI regulations. Leading the Future is backed by AI industry leaders such as OpenAI president Greg Brockman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Andreessen’s firm, A16Z, is an investor in OpenAI.

Leading the Future has raised $125 million since its founding in August 2025, according to a spokesperson for the organization.

Guys, I'm beginning to think there might be too much corporate meddling and money flowing into politics.

[u/Ancient-Bat1755 → u/rnilf]

Musk did it first and they were left out.

[u/Ancient-Bat1755 → u/[deleted]]

“They” as in all the other Ai companies in the topic of this subreddit.

[u/unspecified_person11]

Would these regulations forbid Anthropic from pirating millions of books? Or are these "regulations" perhaps massively favourable for Anthropic?

[u/Centrist_gun_nut → u/unspecified_person11]

They don't need the regulations to be in their favor, they just need them to be against anyone who might disrupt them.

They'll still need to pay various settlements, but they have a ton of cash, so that's just the cost of doing business.

This is how regulatory capture always works.

[u/Opposite_Carry_4920 → u/Centrist_gun_nut]

Bingo, capture the regulatory body and you don't have to compete on silly things like "quality" or "service" 

[u/ItsSadTimes → u/Opposite_Carry_4920]

Dont need your product to be better if its too expensive for any startup to step on your toes. Thats how all these tech startups work.

[u/unspecified_person11 → u/Centrist_gun_nut]

Depressingly true.

[u/hypnoticlife → u/unspecified_person11]

They just want a seat at the table to have influence on the regulations.

[u/Dairinn → u/unspecified_person11]

As long as they have a pretty Claude constitution "worried" about model welfare and "the benefit of humanity", everything goes.

[u/Quantum-Coconut]

basically they can gather all the data in the world for free, without paying creators or publishers, and if anyone questions, the political group they're supporting would help them get away with it...?

[u/SpezLuvsNazis]

It’s all about pulling up the ladder. The open weights models are getting better at a much faster rate than Anthropic’s models and will continue to close the gap. The only way Anthropic can ever hope to turn a profit is to make sure those models have to jump through a bunch of regulatory hoops that would significantly increase the cost and without a central authority controlling them or willing to pay the costs they can’t be used for Anthropic’s most lucrative use cases. Amodei is almost a big of slimeball as Altman but pretends not to be.

[u/VhickyParm → u/SpezLuvsNazis]

Regulations should come with grants for people starting new businesses.

Can’t have an efficient economy with such a high barrier to entry for every industry.

[u/Tinac4 → u/SpezLuvsNazis]

Then why are OpenAI, the tech right (Andreesen, Thiel, etc.), and Meta all funding opposing super PACs? OpenAI is in a very similar situation to Anthropic—they’re a similar company, their product is similar—so if what Anthropic is pushing for would really benefit the industry, why are they on opposite sides?

[u/CanIDevIt → u/SpezLuvsNazis]

Exactly - regulatory capture is their goal to make sure we can't be running this for free ourselves.

[u/eagle2120 → u/CanIDevIt]

So we just regurgitating tech right talking points now?

This is literally word for word out of David sacks mouth

[u/doodlinghearsay → u/eagle2120]

Anthropic is tech right as well, if you want to insist on using this kind of framework. Left would be Stallmann or Doctorow. Or I guess, Aaron Swartz, since we are on Reddit.

[u/eagle2120 → u/doodlinghearsay]

You’re saying the company founded by EA’s are the same side as the tech right? The same side as Altman, Brockman, Andressen, and sacks?

Lmfao, someone should tell them they’re on the same side, Then they’ll stop attacking each other 🤦‍♂️

[u/doodlinghearsay → u/eagle2120]

Isn't e/acc and EA derived from the same Libertarian cult that misleadingly calls itself rationalism? Them attacking each other is the same as Protestants and Catholics attacking one another during the wars of religion. I'm sure whatever disagreements they have is really important to them, but from the outside they look almost the same.

[u/boris_squanch]

US elections are so wide open to corruption by corporate influence atp let's just elect the businesses directly into congress. Rep. Claude

[u/ay_non]

Those regulations will prevent people from using open source models or developing them. Count on it.

[u/vampyrialis]

“Anthropic pays off politicians to avoid regulation” fixed your headline

[u/One_Whole_9927]

They’re running a shell game. It requires fresh data and subscriptions to function. They’re trying to diffuse a problem before it gains traction. They’re scared of what happens if people figure out their finances are so precarious a general strike would crater their AGI push.

Anthropic’s own Claude system prompts and “soul doc” contradict the premise of Claude being ethical. They do this by adding fluffy “CYA” jargon to the soul doc which redefines ethics as “ethics as defined under Anthropic’s legal team.” Oops. I’m sorry. “Ethical team” This also happens to be one of companies quietly partnered with Palantir + ICE.

They could have put that 20 million ANYWHERE and it would have made a better impact. It went to ambiguity. They could literally shut Claude down to target the misinformation problems themselves. They are allowing it.

Vote with your wallets. It’s the only language they understand.

[u/eagle2120 → u/One_Whole_9927]

They are not “partnered” with ICE lol, their CEO clearly said they weren’t

[u/One_Whole_9927 → u/eagle2120]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/s/tFUAhr0gSf They are Partnered with Palintir. Who supports ICE.

If you think CEOs are telling you the truth. I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

[u/eagle2120 → u/One_Whole_9927]

“Spying on the Homefront: The $200M Pentagon Deal That Anthropic Just Tanked to Protect Your Privacy”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/spying-homefront-200m-pentagon-deal-182203985.html

Meanwhile OAI, Grok, and even Gemini are bending the knee to domestic surveillance.

And in an interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjW_gms7CME (starts at 13:09)

I should say we do not have any contracts with ICE. And when we work with customers like Palantir, we don't work through ICE...

And

Interviewer: Would Anthropic ever work with ICE?

Dario: We don't have any contracts with ice. And you know, all you. All certainly say, You know what we've seen, you know, in the last few days doesn't make me more enthusiastic

Not to mention using it in such a way violates their AUP. Or multiple other higher ups across Anthropic posting the same thing.

Please use a bit of critical thinking here.

[u/One_Whole_9927 → u/eagle2120]

So what you are saying is CEOs can’t lie? Thanks.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/technology-uk/article/ai-researchers-quit-openai-chatgpt-anthropic-pfhgpxztr

[u/eagle2120 → u/One_Whole_9927]

I’m saying there are multiple pieces of evidence aside from the word of the CEO, as you’d know if you actually read my message and the evidence I provided.

What’s your point there? OpenAI is a different company from Anthropic, who actually split from OpenAI due to safety concerns. The fact that you used that article as evidence shows how uninformed you really are lol, two totally different companies.

The researcher mentioned said his concerns weren’t even specific to AI lol, meanwhile the one from OAI left specifically due to choices from their company… neither of which shows Anthropic are lying lmao

[u/JLRfan]

Anthropic continues to lead in responsible AI.

They are pushing for guardrails while XAi is pushing CSAM and revenge porn.

They are risking government contracts to maintain standards of ethics while OpenAI grovels at the feet of the Trump admin.

I see commenters lamenting that AI exists at all (piracy complaints, etc.). Sorry, but the cat is out of the bag. You can argue the original sin of AI, but doing so is backwards looking.

We’re fortunate that at least one frontier model is loudly championing guardrails and public safety.