Former UK AI Strategy Adviser Matt Clifford Joins Anthropic in Senior Role

The architect of the UK government’s AI strategy has joined the US startup Anthropic in a senior role a year after stepping down from his Downing Street post.

Matt Clifford, a successful tech investor, was appointed as AI opportunities adviser by Keir Starmer last year but resigned from the unpaid role six months later for personal reasons.

His move to the company behind the Claude chatbot has raised concern, with the head of the House of Commons science, innovation and technology committee, Chi Onwurah, warning that his decision to remain as chair of the government-backed Aria funding body represents a “clear conflict of interest”.

Clifford is moving to Anthropic as managing director, international affairs, and will lead the company’s engagement with governments outside the US including in the UK, Europe, Asia-Pacific and India.

Anthropic said Clifford would remain as chair of Aria, the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency, which funds “moonshot” science and tech projects. He will also maintain his chair role at Entrepreneurs First, the tech venture capital firm he co-founded.

He was appointed chair of Aria in 2022. It is understood that Clifford will step back from any matter involving Anthropic at Aria, but Onwurah said the roles clashed and she called on the AI minister, Kanishka Narayan, to intervene.

“His intention to remain as chair of Aria, which spends taxpayer money on cutting-edge research, much of it related to or driven by AI, is a clear conflict of interest and I look forward to the AI minister setting out clear boundaries,” Onwurah said.

Anthropic and the UK government have been approached for comment.

The path from elected office to Silicon Valley is already well-established after the former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg took a senior role at Meta in 2018, followed last year by the former prime minister Rishi Sunak taking advisory roles at Microsoft and Anthropic, and the ex-chancellor George Osborne joining OpenAI.

Clifford said the most important decisions about AI would be made by companies and governments together. He said: “Countries everywhere want real agency over how this technology is built and used, and my job is to make Anthropic a genuine partner in that – in Europe, Asia and beyond.”

Anthropic is preparing for a stock exchange flotation that could value the business at $2tn (£1.5tn).

Tom Brake, the chief executive of Unlock Democracy, a not-for-profit campaign group, said the move showed that “the revolving door is a problem for advisers as much as it is for ministers”.

“Taking extensive knowledge obtained within government, about a policy as sensitive as AI, to a private sector company shortly after leaving government gives that company a huge advantage,” said Brake, a Liberal Democrat MP from 1997 to 2019.

“Regardless of any safeguards, this weakens the government’s hand when pushing for a precautionary approach towards AI development,” he added.

Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer and prominent critic of the government’s AI policy, said: “We need more independent politics which puts the interests of workers, citizens and society at the forefront of our relationship with the tech sector.”

An Anthropic spokesperson said the UK was “one of dozens” of governments Clifford’s team would engage with. “We hire people with expertise and who understand how government works because our work requires it – in every market, not just the UK,” they said.

Clifford launched his tech career in the private sector. Prior to his government work, Clifford was an established figure on the UK tech scene as a co-founder of Entrepreneurs First, which has helped build tech companies with a combined worth of more than $20bn.

Clifford worked with Sunak’s government as his representative to the 2023 AI Safety Summit in the UK, and helped create the organisation that later became the world-leading AI Security Institute.