Kevin Bass alleged on X on September 14, 2026, that AI safety nonprofits around Anthropic form a “self-amplifying regulatory capture machine” tied to Anthropic’s financial success. The post, later discussed on Hacker News with a score of 81 and 15 comments, claimed Tarbell Fellows in popular media and METR in evaluations promote an Anthropic-aligned “Doomer” narrative about AI risk while presenting themselves as independent.

Bass claimed the nonprofits rely on Dustin Moskovitz’s Anthropic stock, which he valued at $7 billion, through a parent funding organization. He argued that the stock becomes more valuable if Anthropic grows, and that the same growth can increase funding for AI safety organizations connected through Moskovitz’s funding lineage. Bass also cited “frontier lab monoculture” as part of his claim that the groups are not independent from Anthropic.

Bass described the alleged structure as a financial loop: Anthropic promotes “AI Doom” as the problem and “AI Safety” as the solution, while related nonprofits amplify the risk narrative in journalism and regulation. He said the loop supports larger IPOs and regulatory capture, and specifically named METR as an example of an organization he claimed Anthropic influences through funding funnels.

Bass said he had “conducted an audit of Anthropic’s finances” and called for a Congressional investigation, saying Anthropic had built a regulatory-capture machine “that cannot be turned off.” The X post showed 32.8K views and engagement counts of 36, 183, 600 and 166. Replies in the scraped thread included one user asking whether David Sacks knew of the claims and another warning against regulatory capture in AI, but the provided text did not include Anthropic’s response or independent verification of Bass’s allegations.

Kevin Bass alleged on X on September 14, 2026, that AI safety nonprofits around Anthropic form a “self-amplifying regulatory capture machine” tied to Anthropic’s financial success. The post, later discussed on Hacker News with a score of 81 and 15 comments, claimed Tarbell Fellows in popular media and METR in evaluations promote an Anthropic-aligned “Doomer” narrative about AI risk while presenting themselves as independent.

Bass claimed the nonprofits rely on Dustin Moskovitz’s Anthropic stock, which he valued at $7 billion, through a parent funding organization. He argued that the stock becomes more valuable if Anthropic grows, and that the same growth can increase funding for AI safety organizations connected through Moskovitz’s funding lineage. Bass also cited “frontier lab monoculture” as part of his claim that the groups are not independent from Anthropic.

Bass described the alleged structure as a financial loop: Anthropic promotes “AI Doom” as the problem and “AI Safety” as the solution, while related nonprofits amplify the risk narrative in journalism and regulation. He said the loop supports larger IPOs and regulatory capture, and specifically named METR as an example of an organization he claimed Anthropic influences through funding funnels.

Bass said he had “conducted an audit of Anthropic’s finances” and called for a Congressional investigation, saying Anthropic had built a regulatory-capture machine “that cannot be turned off.” The X post showed 32.8K views and engagement counts of 36, 183, 600 and 166. Replies in the scraped thread included one user asking whether David Sacks knew of the claims and another warning against regulatory capture in AI, but the provided text did not include Anthropic’s response or independent verification of Bass’s allegations.