AI Philanthropy: Why Anthropic and Elon Musk Are Giving Away Billions

AI philanthropy made headlines after Anthropic announced that 5 per cent of its shares would go to a public benefit fund. It amounts to US$ 48 billion as per its last valuation. Almost, immediately, Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, which owns the frontier AI model Grok, said that he would give one share of the company to every child in the United States. That would amount to around US$ 10 billion.

These are admittedly big numbers, but there is the question of why they feel the need to do it. Most AI companies are struggling to make profits. There is cut-throat competition and, at this stage of a sector's growth, philanthropy usually isn't a focus. It has however become necessary because of the enormous cost that they are about to impose on individuals and societies.

If the AI revolution unfurls as promised, it is going to unleash a wave of unemployment the likes of which have rarely been seen before. Entire sectors might get wiped out as AI takes over what humans toiled to do. Plus, data centres, the brick and mortar from which AI models are created, suck up resources in the regions they are set up in. The world over, from Thane to Memphis in the US, protests against data centres are erupting.

Companies which are responsible for such upheavals recognise that they will soon end up reviled by large sections of the population. Philanthropy, or giving back to society, is an attempt to blunt that phenomenon. There is nothing wrong in it. It is a legitimate form of corporate social responsibility. But one shouldn't be under any illusion that such actions are guided by anything but self-interest. It is a form of reputation management. Take the goodies they throw at you and don't be too thankful because the price is already being exacted in some way.