Anthropic: New $200 Million Fund to Research AI's Economic Impact on the Labor Market

Anthropic announced the Economic Futures fund, worth $200 million, for external research on preparing society for the economic consequences of artificial intelligence.

Who can apply and what are the funding amounts?

Projects are typically worth $5 to $30 million, with a minimum amount of $1 million. The fund is open to accredited universities, research institutes, and nonprofit organizations — not individuals, unlike many smaller research grants that allow independent applications.

Five priority areas of the fund

Anthropic highlights five priority areas: the impact of AI on workers, navigating the transition to new forms of employment, modernizing the social safety net for cases of job loss, worker ownership stakes in AI-generated growth, and gathering evidence for public investment in this area.

Why does the fund prioritize large RCT studies?

The fund specifically encourages large RCT studies — randomized controlled trials in which participants are randomly assigned to groups for a reliable comparison of effects — or ambitious pilot projects, rather than smaller descriptive studies that tend to provide weaker evidence of cause-and-effect relationships.