Anthropic Opens the Floor for the Public to Ask Its Hardest AI Questions

Anthropic wants your hardest questions about AI, and it's promising to answer them in the open.

The company launched "Hard Questions," an initiative built around a short film that captures how people really feel about artificial intelligence.

The film features everyday voices asking things like who sets the rules for AI, whether it can help cure diseases, and whether it puts their children's futures at risk.

The effort serves as an extension of Anthropic's identity as a Public Benefit Corporation, a status that requires it to weigh public good alongside profit.

The company says it has already spent months gathering input before making this ask.

Through the Anthropic Public Record, it surveyed 52,000 Americans about their hopes and concerns.

Through the Anthropic Interviewer, it heard from 81,000 Claude users across 159 countries and 70 languages.

It also ran in-person focus groups with communities whose work intersects with AI's biggest questions.

"To truly act in the public interest, we need to fully understand the hopes and concerns the public has about this new technology," the company said in its announcement.

The initiative also draws on two internal structures Anthropic has built into its brand identity from early on.

The Anthropic Institute is tasked with researching the biggest societal challenges AI could pose.

Meanwhile, the Long-Term Benefit Trust provides outside oversight on how well the company is living up to its public benefit mission.

Turning Concerns Into a Public Record

The 90-minute hero spot starts with a montage of cinematic shots from around the world, ranging from burning houses to scenic forests.

"Can AI be trusted?" one user asks. 

More questions arise, all surrounding the skepticism regular users have over the tech. 

The inquiries grow more and more complex and emotional, with people wondering if AI could help them build connections, be a better teacher, and the like.

"We don't want to lose the most beautiful parts of life," one earnestly declares.

The ad ends with a shot of a person looking into the sea, as the screen writes: "There's hope in hard questions."

Outside of the spot, the core mechanic of Anthropic's initiative is simple.

People submit their toughest questions about AI through Anthropic's Hard Questions website, covering topics like:

• Job loss
• Creative work
• Human connection
• The risk of powerful technology ending up in the wrong hands

In return, Anthropic says it will publicly track and report the specific actions it takes in response, along with the areas where it falls short.

The company ties this effort to existing infrastructure it has spent years building, including its safeguards work and interpretability research, and free access for scientists.

Notably, it's also made for a fellowship program pairing Claude users with nonprofits.

Anthropic's Answer-Everything Strategy

AI companies are choosing to sit in public discomfort instead of talking past it, and that's necessary for an audience that only grows to be more skeptical by the day.

Publishing the very concerns that could make it look bad was a bet that visible accountability builds more trust, because it shows Anthropic's willingness to tackle them head-on. 

Marketers watching AI brands navigate public worry can take a few notes from this approach.

• Ask the question before your audience does: Anthropic got ahead of potential questions by raising concerns about job loss and safety that users might already be wondering.
• Attach a measurable promise: The pledge to publicly track its responses gives the campaign a built-in accountability check.
• Use real research as the foundation: Surveys spanning tens of thousands of people give the initiative a data backbone that a single ad campaign couldn't.

AI companies continue to turn to human stories to make their products feel approachable.

OpenAI's "Time to Fly" campaign for Codex, as an example, leveraged developer testimonials and real-world reactions instead of technical specs.

Anthropic follows this same instinct here, centering everyday people asking plain questions instead of showcasing what its models can do.

The two campaigns suggest that as AI capabilities converge, trust and relatability are becoming the real differentiators.

Our Take: Is Candidness the Key?

There's a quiet confidence to what Anthropic is doing, playing a longer game than most companies would risk.

Brands often hide their weak spots, ignore the hard questions, and go on in the name of innovation.

That's just not something you can gloss over when you run an AI company. 

Anthropic understood this and published a list of the exact reasons people distrust its entire industry.

At the end of it, maybe it can convince the general audience that AI isn't the bad guy after all.

This would then make the efforts a rare case that gets remembered less for the film and more for the receipts.

Tech brands are exploring how to turn data-heavy features into emotionally resonant storytelling moments. Partner with these top marketing agencies in our directory.