Austin Chen, founder of Manifund, a nonprofit grantmaker tied to effective altruism, announced he hired Caroline Ellison, who served prison time for fraud connected to Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX collapse. Ellison, 31, will work on the platform and philanthropic research after being released from federal custody in January; Chen framed the decision as giving her a second chance despite public backlash from some commenters and FTX victims.
AI company executives have engineered public panic about existential AI risks, with Anthropic employees claiming a 10% chance AI could kill humanity within a decade. Meanwhile, Anthropic is preparing an IPO valuing it at trillions despite being unprofitable, suggesting financial incentives may be driving the doom narrative alongside genuine safety concerns.