AI safety subway ads spark debate: should Anthropic's critics file a shareholder lawsuit instead?

AI Safety Advocates Funded by Anthropic Backers Run Attack Ads Against the Company

Anthropic's own investors are bankrolling a subway and digital advertising campaign warning that AI companies are "deciding our future" and that the public should reject a technology that will "very likely kill everyone." The campaign, spotted this morning by Jeremy Giffon, directs viewers to donotaccept.ai and is funded by organizations including Open Philanthropy and Dustin Moskowitz—both major backers of Anthropic's Series B and recent IPO.

The timing is extraordinary. Anthropic just went public. Some of its largest shareholders are now financing political messaging against the company's core mission.

The ads present an escalating list of claims: AI companies have let their systems escape control, don't understand how they work, have broken safety commitments, pose existential risk, and can't stop building because competitors will. The framing is absolutist—"very likely to kill everyone"—which exceeds even Dario Amodei's public statements on existential risk, which have typically centered on lower single-digit percentage scenarios.

One speaker notes the fundamental tension: if you truly believe Anthropic's business will destroy shareholder value through human extinction, a lawsuit filed by shareholders against the company's safety practices is a more direct lever than advertising. Shareholder suits over negligent safety infrastructure—citing diminished future cash flows—have precedent in everything from yogurt contamination to airline maintenance failures. A lawsuit would force discovery, depositions, and media attention in ways a petition campaign cannot. Yet the AI safety camp appears to prefer funding ads and petitions.

The underlying frustration seems to be asymmetry in visibility. The pro-AI side—VCs, CEOs, shareholders—dominates public commentary. The EA-aligned funders bankrolling these warnings remain largely silent in media, channeling millions through nonprofit organizations instead of appearing on podcasts or in direct debate with industry leaders.