Thompson Paine (Anthropic): "The Potential of AI Technology is Massive"

Jul 17, 2024

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(0:00) Intro.

(1:05) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.

(1:52) Start of interview.

(2:28) Thompson's origin story.

(3:42) His startup work at Quizlet (joined a 5 person team) and Stripe (from 2k to 8k employees). Joined Anthropic in early 2023.

(6:25) On China-US relations, and the course he teaches at Vanderbilt Law School: Emerging Technologies, Law, and U.S.-China Competition.

(11:04) On startup incorporations, Delaware, and other thoughts for entrepreneurs. Reference to Stripe Atlas.

(14:18) Unveiling the AI investment landscape. Increase in capital and talent in AI technologies. "Companies at the frontier of building LLMs: Anthropic, OpenAI, Alphabet and Meta."

(19:15) On the international AI landscape. China wanting to overcome its "century of humiliation."

(21:55) Origin story and mission of Anthropic. The eight founders left OpenAI in 2021. Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

(26:14) Anthropic's Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) and Long Term Benefit Trust (LTBT) model.

(29:24) How to think about AI and its paradigm shift for corporate directors.

(31:05) Claude products for consumers and enterprise.

(33:36) On the future of work with impact of AI.

(35:17) San Francisco's evolving role as a global tech hub.

(37:37) Is AI overhyped or underhyped? "The impact of AI will be somewhere between the internet platform shift to the next industrial revolution (...) and if the next internet is kind of the lower bound of the impact AI will have on society and the economy and technology more broadly, then that's a pretty significant impact."

(40:05) On the "stay private vs go public" debate.

(42:48) More thoughts for directors on AI. Prof Ethan Mollick: "The AI you're using today is the worst AI you will ever use."

(43:48) Books that have greatly influenced his life:

The Children, by David Halberstam (1998)
Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler (2006)
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (1929)

(46:42) His mentors. Chris Klein and Dan Crittenbrink (State Department). Chip Blacker (Stanford).

(47:53) Quotes that he thinks of often or lives his life by.

(48:40) An unusual habit or absurd thing that he loves: Antique maps and running everyday.

(50:28) The living person he most admires.

Thompson Paine is the head of business operations at Anthropic, one of the leading AI companies in San Francisco.

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