Anthropic Appoints Ben Bernanke to Long‑Term Benefit Trust
On 9 July 2026, Anthropic announced that Ben Bernanke, a Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Chair of the Federal Reserve, has been appointed to its Long‑Term Benefit Trust. Bernanke served as Federal Reserve Chair from 2006 to 2014, steering the central bank through the 2008 global financial crisis and the subsequent recovery, and spent more than two decades as an academic economist at Princeton University, where he chaired the economics department and researched the Great Depression and banking’s role in financial crises. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2022 for this work.
Bernanke stated, “The potential of artificial intelligence is enormous, and so is the range of outcomes. How that potential plays out will depend, in part, on the institutions we build around it,” adding that Anthropic’s governance structure aims to ensure that the long‑run benefits of AI for humanity far outweigh the risks.
Daniela Amodei, Cofounder and President of Anthropic, highlighted Bernanke’s experience in studying economic reactions to disruptive moments and his leadership of the world’s largest economy, noting that his judgment will help the company anticipate and respond to how advanced AI affects workforces and economies globally.
Anthropic operates as a Public Benefit Corporation, balancing commercial success with social and public good. The Long‑Term Benefit Trust is an independent oversight body tasked with holding Anthropic to its mission of responsible advanced AI development. Trustees of the Trust hold no equity in Anthropic, receive no profits, and are compensated solely for their time and service. The Trust possesses authority to appoint Anthropic board members and advises leadership on decisions involving AI risks and societal impacts.
With Bernanke’s addition, the Trust’s composition now includes existing trustees Neil Buddy Shah, Richard Fontaine, and Mariano‑Florentino Cuéllar, who together will provide governance on AI risk mitigation and societal impact considerations.
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