#177 President & Co-Founder Anthropic, Daniela Amodei: AI Hurricane

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Feb 12, 2024

Daniela Amodei, President and co-founder of Anthropic, discusses the challenges of working in the generative AI industry, the release of Claude II and the concept of constitutional AI, and understanding public benefit corporations in the AI industry. They also explore the unique dynamics of the AI industry, improving the interview process, and the comparisons to Sheryl Sandberg.

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ANECDOTE

Holiday Dinner Speculation

Joubin imagines a holiday dinner with the Amodei family amidst OpenAI's rise and Anthropic's fundraising.
He wonders how they avoid discussing AI given Daniela's history with OpenAI and the industry's current state.

INSIGHT

Growing Up in the Tech Bubble

Daniela reflects on growing up in San Francisco during the tech boom and its subtle influence.
Despite this, she values her diverse friendships, both within and outside the tech industry.

ADVICE

Staying Grounded Amidst Hype

Stay grounded amidst industry hype by focusing on tangible business goals and growth.
Avoid the trap of believing your own hype; prioritize continuous improvement.

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Guest: Daniela Amodei, President and co-founder of Anthropic

With a reported valuation of as much as $18 billion, Anthropic has the resources to be one of the dominant AI companies in Silicon Valley; however, it was conceived as a public benefit corporation and always tries to strike a balance between hypergrowth and responsibility. Anthropic’s flagship LLM, Claude, must adhere to a “constitution” of values that prioritize the good of humanity. And even though every company wants to “do AI” right now, President Daniela Amodei says some of them should slow down. “I keep coming back to this idea of, ‘How much are you buying the hype?’” she says. “’How grounded are you in the reality of what's actually happening?’ And sometimes in business conversations, we tell a potential customer, ‘We don't think we're right for you.’”

In this episode, Daniela and Joubin discuss her brother Dario, staying grounded, hypergrowth startups, Claire Hughes Johnson, mechanistic interpretability, Paul Graham, AI training, what AI companies can learn from social media, Stripe, the pool of venture capital in the Bay Area, leading people, giving feedback to all your coworkers, interview questions, and Sheryl Sandberg.

In this episode, we cover:

Holidays with the Amodei family (01:15)
The tech industry bubble (05:35)
Inside the AI hurricane (09:53)
Scaling as a superpower (14:39)
Complementary abilities (16:39)
Claude 2 and constitutional AI (20:05)
Making AI trustworthy, safe, and powerful (28:58)
Generative AI’s high cost (31:03)
Anthropic and OpenAI’s massive responsibility (37:50)
The impact of new technology (42:32)
Public benefit companies (46:55)
Extremely lean go to market (53:36)
AI as a business-led industry (01:00:37)
Customer obsession (01:06:58)
Where do you want to use your innovation? (01:11:31)
Who shouldn’t use AI? (01:14:33)
“Everything to everyone” (01:18:15)
Working with Daniela (01:22:26)
Interviews at Anthropic (01:25:38)
Intense performance reviews (01:29:47)
Middle managers are underrated (01:35:46)
“Tell me about yourself” (01:39:47)
Who Anthropic is hiring (01:42:33)

Links:

Connect with Daniela
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm