Matt Clifford, the architect of the UK government’s AI strategy, has joined the US-based tech startup Anthropic in a senior role, a year after leaving his position in the UK government. Clifford, a well-known tech investor, was appointed as the AI opportunities adviser by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last year but resigned from the unpaid role after six months for personal reasons. His new position at Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, has sparked concerns over potential conflicts of interest. Chi Onwurah, head of the House of Commons science, innovation, and technology committee, criticized Clifford’s decision to remain as chair of the government-backed Aria funding body, which supports high-risk, high-reward science and technology projects. She described the situation as a "clear conflict of interest," urging the AI minister, Kanishka Narayan, to address the issue. Clifford will serve as Anthropic’s managing director for international affairs, overseeing the company’s engagement with governments outside the US, including the UK, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and India. Anthropic confirmed that Clifford will continue as chair of Aria, as well as his role at Entrepreneurs First, the tech venture capital firm he co-founded. He was appointed chair of Aria in 2022. The company stated that Clifford would not be involved in any decisions related to Anthropic within Aria, and that his role at Aria is managed by a separate team. The Department of Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, which oversees Aria’s chair appointments, has also approved this arrangement. Onwurah argued that Clifford’s dual roles undermine the government’s ability to regulate AI development responsibly. She emphasized that Aria uses taxpayer money to fund cutting-edge research, often involving AI, and that having a former government advisor with close ties to a private tech firm could compromise the integrity of such funding. Anthropic reiterated that its commercial relationship with Aria is handled separately from Clifford’s responsibilities, and that he does not influence procurement or program-level spending decisions at Aria. Clifford has stated that his role at Anthropic is to help governments and companies collaborate on AI development. He emphasized the importance of ensuring that countries maintain control over how AI is built and used. He described his job as making Anthropic a "genuine partner" in this effort across Europe, Asia, and other regions. Anthropic is preparing for a stock market flotation that could value the company at up to $2 trillion. Critics, including Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer and critic of UK AI policy, have raised concerns about the "revolving door" between government and private sector roles, arguing that such movements weaken the government’s ability to advocate for cautious AI regulation. Others have pointed out that several senior UK politicians have taken roles at Silicon Valley firms in recent years, including former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg at Meta and former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Microsoft and Anthropic. Clifford’s career has been largely in the private sector, where he co-founded Entrepreneurs First, a venture capital firm that has helped build tech companies with a combined value of over $20 billion. He also played a key role in the UK’s AI Safety Summit and helped establish the AI Security Institute.