Jack Clark was a reporter at Bloomberg when I was editor. He told me he was leaving to join OpenAI in 2016. I told him that was a terrible idea. The rest is history.
In 2016, Jack Clark walked up to me in Bloomberg’s San Francisco newsroom and asked if he could go for a walk. As an editor, I often don’t like it when one of my reporters makes a request like this.
Sure enough, as I sat on a bench looking out at the bay, Jack told me he was quitting to join a nonprofit called OpenAI.
I said this is a terrible idea. OpenAI was less than a year old at the time and was still a relatively unknown AI research group. Its main claim to fame was Elon Musk’s (uneven) financial support.
I pressed my case. As a reporter for Bloomberg’s Big Tech team, Jack had a pretty steady job. In contrast, OpenAI didn’t seem to have much direction, and could see no path to becoming financially sustainable other than asking Musk for more funding. Personally, I also wanted Jack to stay at Bloomberg and continue covering Google and AI, which he is good at.
I thought it was pretty convincing, but Jack ignored me and walked away.
“Please read the research paper”
Jack Clark. Stephanie Reynolds/Getty Images
He has since become an influential expert and advisor on AI safety and related topics, and has co-authored several AI research papers. Jack also created one of the most popular AI email newsletters called Import AI, which is followed by many researchers in the field. He still writes about it regularly.
When I ask him how to learn more about AI and get better stories about the technology, he often says, “Read research papers.” He was right. A lot of valuable information is hidden in these papers.
Jack spent over four years at OpenAI, where he was responsible for strategy and communications, before becoming policy director. He may have gotten some equity in a startup company, I don’t know.
Then in 2020 he left OpenAI and we haven’t heard from him for a while. A few months later, he emerged as one of seven co-founders of Anthropic, which was founded by some of OpenAI’s early employees.
Co-founders reminisce
Anthropic is currently challenging OpenAI on the front lines of generative AI and large-scale language models. In addition to Amazon and Google, we are backed by several top venture capital firms.
Related articles
The co-founders met last month to discuss starting Anthropic. Jack holds court with colleagues who recall his early days.
“I met Dalio when I went to the conference you attended in 2015, and I tried to interview him, but a Google spokesperson said he would have read all of your research papers,” Jack told Anthropic. I told CEO Dario Amodei: He used to work at Google.
“When I was at Google, I think I was writing about ‘specific issues in AI safety,'” Amodei says. “I think you wrote an article about that paper.”
“I did it,” Jack said with a cheeky grin.
not his style
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Anthropic was raising capital at a valuation of $60 billion. After that, Forbes reported that the seven co-founders, including Jack, are expected to become billionaires.
I asked Jack about this last week and said I’d like to interview him to hear his story.
“Haha, thank you Ali, but that’s not really my style,” he replied.
That’s true. Jack is one of the gentlest, kindest, most self-deprecating people I’ve ever met. He’s not your typical billionaire.
I’m still stunned and trying to come to terms with his new situation. What I do know is that Jack’s decision to ignore me is a testament to his passion, single-mindedness, and vision.
He fell in love with AI in 2015, when few people were thinking about it, and was constantly driven to write about the technology for Bloomberg.
Jack knew that AI was important. When the opportunity came, he took the risk and went for it.
