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Claude Corps

anthropic.com

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Re: Claude Corps

#51

Post by pandoro »

Taken verbatim from Anthropic’s Economic Policy Framework (https://www.anthropic.com/policy-on-the-ai-exponential/epf):

> We are not seeking job displacement. We are working to prevent or minimize it. Some amount of displacement, though we cannot say how much, may be an intrinsic consequence of the technology, and our responsibility is to prepare for it and respond to it. That is what this framework is for.

> Whatever happens, we are on the side of people. We are trying to solve these problems. We take no satisfaction in contributing to them, and we are not working to make them more likely.

The cognitive dissonance/doublespeak/hypocrisy (pick one) is absolutely insane.

They are concurrently:

1. creating and marketing products that are explicitly trying to automate, if not entire professions, at least big parts of them

2. edicting grand policy plans to limit the impact of massive job displacement that their products might cause

3. directly funding and coordinating missionary-type activities ("it's for a greater cause") to evangelize and propagate said products in areas of the economy that are usually underfunded and where job security is already quite bad (non-profits, NGOs)

Re: Claude Corps

#52

Post by skybrian »

roxolotl wrote: post #29
himata4113 wrote: post #3

I had to read this twice to understand what they're actually proposing here. The entire premise behind AI is that it can amplify (and in some cases) replace human workers. The blog seems completely backwards to what they're advertising to the enterprise in sales. -- edit -- After more reading I find this really funny: "Enforcement and regulatory authority with teeth. The government should be able to block or deter th…

This is what always confuses me about the “keep up or get left behind” crowd. Either these tools are gods in boxes and we’re all going to be replaced or they are actually something that you can gain expertise around. If you can gain expertise around them then sure there’s value in keeping up. But those shouting we’ve all gotta keep up are mostly the same claiming they are building god boxes. It genuinely has to be on…

Seems like there is skill in knowing what to ask the genie for, no matter how powerful the genie is? How is that not going to be an issue?

That said, there are things people had to worry about last year with weaker models that aren't really a problem anymore, so some of the knowledge you get by "keeping up" becomes obsolete and could be skipped by waiting.

Re: Claude Corps

#53

Post by gwbas1c »

pandoro wrote: post #51

Taken verbatim from Anthropic’s Economic Policy Framework ( https://www.anthropic.com/policy-on-the-ai-exponential/epf ): > We are not seeking job displacement. We are working to prevent or minimize it. Some amount of displacement, though we cannot say how much, may be an intrinsic consequence of the technology, and our responsibility is to prepare for it and respond to it. That is what this framework is for. > Whate…

Hey, think critically about where you are on the internet. You're on a message board run by YCombinator, who's stated goal is to teach people to run startups. Startups are inherently disruptive. When one business disrupts another, people lose their jobs.

Companies going out of business, either because of disruption, or because they ran themselves poorly, or other reasons, is part of the normal business cycle. Otherwise, we'd end up doing things like making digital cameras illegal because the people who worked in film labs lost their jobs. (Which is absurd!)

---

I don't see any cognitive dissonance in what you quote. Some people will lose jobs to AI. Anthropic wants to train people who lose jobs to AI.

Re: Claude Corps

#54

Post by 827a »

skybrian wrote: post #50
827a wrote: post #30

This seems like one way to saddle nonprofits with functional, but potentially very expensive systems, set up by someone who helps them for a year then disappears and leaves them with no expertise to do long-term cost control or functionality improvements.

They know it's a temporary job going in, though. How is this different than having an intern? If they're not using this opportunity to train other staff then that seems like a management problem.

It certainly is a management problem, as non-profits are certainly not well known for having strong management.

Re: Claude Corps

#55

Post by pandoro »

gwbas1c wrote: post #53
pandoro wrote: post #51

Taken verbatim from Anthropic’s Economic Policy Framework ( https://www.anthropic.com/policy-on-the-ai-exponential/epf ): > We are not seeking job displacement. We are working to prevent or minimize it. Some amount of displacement, though we cannot say how much, may be an intrinsic consequence of the technology, and our responsibility is to prepare for it and respond to it. That is what this framework is for. > Whate…

Hey, think critically about where you are on the internet. You're on a message board run by YCombinator, who's stated goal is to teach people to run startups. Startups are inherently disruptive. When one business disrupts another, people lose their jobs. Companies going out of business, either because of disruption, or because they ran themselves poorly, or other reasons, is part of the normal business cycle. Otherwi…

I see your point, but in this case we are not talking about disruption at the scale of a product category, vertical, or even an entire industry. AI companies are trying to disrupt entire sectors of the economy at the same time: knowledge work/white collar jobs, creative work (design, photo, video, ...), medical professions, etc.

They are recognizing themselves in their economic policy framework that the lowest level of unemployment potentially caused would be 5% (they also mention 10% and "unprecedented levels of unemployment").

I don't think there is a precedent for this claim. It's hard to take the "we're a force for good for humanity" message seriously in this context.

Re: Claude Corps

#56

Post by Shalomboy »

chaseadam17 wrote: post #49

Surprised how negative most of the comments are. A lot of nonprofits could benefit from someone helping them implement AI and most are 1) competent enough to ensure the fellow hands off their projects before they leave, and 2) to decide if it’s worth continuing to pay for Claude or not. It’s great the fellows are paid so they are at least somewhat accountable vs volunteers who are often unreliable. All that said, I b…

I'm negative on this proposal because it sounds like Anthropic put the cart before the horse. Today, at this very moment, 9 out of 10 non-profits and NGOs run of IT infrastructure wholly dependent on email servers, office software, and phone calls. For Anthropic to create a positive result from flooding the space with cut-rate FDEs, NGOS would need to have in-place the sort of infrastructure that could accommodate whatever widgets Sonnet generate, not to mention the right personnel to manage that infrastructure long-term. If an NGO's IT Department is already positioned properly to embrace a Claude Corps Missionary, they near-certainly wouldn't need a Claude Corps Missionary because they would need to publicly justify that department's existence year-after-year. So what does this actually look like for the chosen organizations, other than a sales pitch.

Re: Claude Corps

#57

Post by mettamage »

motbus3 wrote: post #37
mettamage wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s how it sounds

Why everything they do sounds shady?

I'm not saying it's shady.

> So your job is to be an FDE to sell Claude into non-profits....

Being forward deployed engineer is to work with a particular business helping them out with the solution that your tech company du jour makes.

> but without ever actually working for Anthropic.

I didn't really get the impression that they work for Anthropic as it is a 12 month thing and then it's done. So you're not seen as something long-term, nor do you get one of those juicy tech salaries (which I'd assume is something that Anthropic pays if they see you as a long-term fit).

Whether you find that shady is up to you. I didn't even think that far ahead mate.

Re: Claude Corps

#58

Post by rektlessness »

KMPG and Palantir already use the FDE playbook to great success. And we've all found value in a free 12-month vendor trial, with no obligation to commit. No idea what the fuss is about.

All non-profits need to do is demand model-agnostic deliverables, insist on handoff documentation, and budget for switching costs before the year ends.

Re: Claude Corps

#59

Post by patcon »

827a wrote: post #30

This seems like one way to saddle nonprofits with functional, but potentially very expensive systems, set up by someone who helps them for a year then disappears and leaves them with no expertise to do long-term cost control or functionality improvements.

I don't suppose you have experience with how badly small non-profits are fucked by every tech consultancy they ever work with? They are paying for a service at the very top of their budget, and receiving services perceived from the bottom, as almost "pro bono" by the consultancy, via intern labour.

They all have PTSD from the status quo.

Getting nonprofits into AI that feels even marginally more self-serve, that is a step forward. Again, even if it just feels more agentic, that's a step forward -- maybe even if they end up screwing things up more in the process -- because the lack agency with their tech is so demoralizing in the sector

Re: Claude Corps

#60

Post by imglorp »

himata4113 wrote: post #3

I had to read this twice to understand what they're actually proposing here. The entire premise behind AI is that it can amplify (and in some cases) replace human workers. The blog seems completely backwards to what they're advertising to the enterprise in sales. -- edit -- After more reading I find this really funny: "Enforcement and regulatory authority with teeth. The government should be able to block or deter th…

> replace human workers

Plenty of charity nonprofits have no/few employees and depend on volunteers for office work. Think animal shelter, food bank, etc. Having a bot perform things like bookkeeping, volunteer coordination, etc would free up volunteers for other things. It wouldn't take many tokens.

If Anthropic wanted some serious PR karma they would include a light usage plan for five or ten years in addition to the engineer to get them started.

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