On August 24, sources close to the matter revealed that during cultural interviews, Anthropic, a leading artificial intelligence company, poses a direct and thought-provoking question to its candidates: If the company were to abandon its AI development ambitions in the future due to safety concerns, causing its stock price to plummet to zero, would the candidate still stand by the decision? The company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, has expressed skepticism about whether newly recruited employees are driven by the “right motivations,” and the interview process is designed to delve into this very tension. The “money versus mission” interview question mirrors the similar dilemmas Anthropic faces in the public eye.

Previously, the company declined to enter into an agreement with the U.S. military that would have allowed unrestricted government use of its technology, leading to the loss of certain government contracts. Additionally, Anthropic restricted access to its most advanced network capability model, Mythos, out of safety considerations. At present, it remains uncertain whether these decisions have had an overall negative effect on revenue—a fact that is difficult to ascertain given that Anthropic is not publicly traded.