Early Anthropic member recalls burnout and big ambitions in the AI lab's early days
Source: Business Insider ·
An early Anthropic employee wrote a lengthy post, describing the AI lab's early safety culture, equity pledges, an FBI visit, and burnout.
From the source
A former Anthropic employee wrote a Substack post about his several-month stint at the company.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesA former Anthropic employee wrote a Substack post about his 8-month stint at the then-new AI lab.It offers a rare look at Anthropic's early, safety-obsessed culture that the author said left him burned out.He describes a visit from the FBI and fresh croissants in an ugly office.Anthropic's executives raced to build a safe AI — and one former employee said that pursuit left him feeling burned out and disillusioned.In a lengthy Substack post, Ivan Vendrov, who worked as a member of the AI lab's technical staff from late 2022 to mid-2023, described an intense workplace, where fears of AI catastrophe clashed with the urge to build safe AGI for commercial use.Vendrov began the post by saying his account should not be taken as gospel. He said he recalled the events "from memory," wrote the "gist of the dialogue rather than the exact words used," and…