Anthropic’s President Daniela Amodei made stuffed animals a bizarre part of her wedding in 2017 – instructing guests to come up with “romantic hookups” between the toys and encouraging attendees to talk to inanimate objects such as chairs.
It’s the latest in a series of bizarre revelations about Anthropic big shots, some of whom has insisted their tech is conscious or even has a soul.
Daniela Amodei, the sister of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and groom Holden Karnofsky said they would hand out stuffed animals to wedding guests and award prizes to guests who created the most compelling love stories for them, according to an archived webpage detailing plans for the nuptials.
“Every guest will receive a small stuffed animal with a bio card, and there will be prizes for the people who arrange the most romantic hookups between the different characters,” the wedding page stated. “You will also be encouraged to talk to the chairs, your entree, the groom, etc. There will be an open bar.”
The webpage – seemingly written by one, the other or both members of the couple – offered an explanation for the oddball requests: “The two of us project personalities onto just about everything, from our numerous stuffed animals to Herman the Thermos.”
The celebration was billed as a “wacky time” and the wedding page told attendees to “Leave your judgment and prudence at home: every idiotic thing you do at our wedding will just make it that much more memorable.”
The stuffed animal-themed wedding – first mentioned this week in a New York Times report – indicates that the Anthropic bigwig’s apparent fascination with stuffed animals runs deeper than previously known.
Anthropic recently pushed outsiders to recognize that its hit Claude chatbot is conscious. It has even lobbied religious scholars to embrace the idea, though it isn’t clear if Daniela Amodei has had a hand in those efforts.
Anthropic recently unnerved users with an updated policy barring people from “abusive or cruel behavior” behavior toward its Claude AI. The company has a “constitution” for its Claude model that was reportedly based on a document internally known as the “soul doc.”
Leading up to the couple’s wedding, Karnofsky — a former nonprofit executive who backed wacky “effective altruist” causes before joining Anthropic full-time last year — authored a blog post that shed more light on the couple’s bizarre interest in stuffed animals.
Instead of a diamond ring, Karnofsky said he proposed to Amodei by making a 100-minute-long film using the roughly 50 stuffed animals they keep in their home, according to an archived blog post written by Karnofsky.
“The plot is complicated and dark and full of vampires, because that’s the kind of thing she likes to watch,” he wrote, noting he secretly filmed the flick while his partner was out of town. He thanked “Mrs. Snoopy” for playing the title role in his film and also thanked “Maura the Polar Bear” for her “breakthrough performance.
Karnofsky said he and Amodei spend more time playing with stuffed animals than “anyone I know of who’s over the age of 9 (well, aside from her mom).”
Karnofsky said he gave Amodei the movie on a USB drive inscribed with the words, “data is Forever.” He claimed it has since replaced the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy as her favorite film.
In September, it was revealed that Amodei used stuffed animals to work through office problems while she and Karnofsky were working at OpenAI, according to an Atlantic report. The couple gave the stuffed animals names and personalities to aid in “managerial role-playing.”
The Amodei siblings, Karnofsky and others even dressed up in animal costumes while attending Burning Man prior to founding Anthropic, according to the recent Times report.
The anecdotes offer a glimpse into the lives of some of Anthropic’s most influential leaders – who have periodically been panned for wacky behavior and bizarre philosophies, including ties to the effective altruism movement.
The Post reported earlier this year that Anthropic’s in-house “philosopher” Amanda Askell had a history of penning oddball essays, including a post that appeared to try to rationalize cannibalism.
While working at OpenAI prior to Anthropic’s founding, Daniela Amodei and Karnofsky used toys as a “personal advisory council” and assigned various animals “character profiles,” according to a September article in The Atlantic.
For instance, Jinji was described as “a lazy cat who encouraged Daniela to cancel meetings and avoid taking on too much work.” Pink bear Maura was “a detail-oriented, type-A manager.”
A panda dubbed Beary Bonds served as the “patron bear of generosity and empathy” — a possible nod to the geeks’ ties to effective-altruism.
For Daniela Amodei, the exercise appeared to mix humor with a serious attempt to think through management problems. The stuffed animals were “very useful in analyzing different personality types,” she told journo Kevin Roose in 2023.
Amodei co-founded Anthropic along with her brother and others in 2021. Karnofsky – a founder of philanthropic charity GiveWell, which has ties to effective altruist causes – later joined the AI behemoth full-time as a member of the technical staff.
The San Francisco-based company is gearing up for one of the most high-profile initial public offerings in history after surfacing as a breakout star of the AI boom.
Despite Anthropic’s surging revenue, Wall Street has grown increasingly anxious over the company’s eye-watering valuation – with key investors pushing the company to temper its expectations ahead of its blockbuster stock-market listing, expected in the coming weeks.
Institutional investors have told Anthropic and its advisers that shooting for a valuation of roughly $1.5 trillion to $1.6 trillion would be more realistic than the $2 trillion that has been pegged to the company in recent months, according to Wall Street Journal reports.
The Post has sought comment from Anthropic.