BIST answers questions on Matt Clifford’s departure from ARIA
Government officials were told that Matt Clifford was taking a senior role at Anthropic at the end of July, and went on to agree a “set of mitigations” which would allow him to stay on as chair of ARIA, Jonathan Reynolds has said in a letter to business committee chair Liam Byrne.
The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) had become responsible for ARIA shortly prior, following new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s machinery of government changes. The department’s interim permanent secretary is said to have agreed a set of mitigations in August:
“These measures included recusal from decisions that could be considered to benefit Anthropic, and safeguards to ensure that information obtained through Mr Clifford’s role as ARIA Chair could not be used to advantage Anthropic.”
However, once Clifford’s appointment became public in early September, questions about conflicts of interest were raised in various quarters, and he quickly announced that he would step down in November.
Reynolds’ letter declines to give detail on exactly what assessments were made over the summer, but does set out the arrangements which have been put in place subsequently. These include Clifford recusing himself for discussions and decisions that could “influence the wider AI sector in ways that “might directly or indirectly confer a disproportionate benefit on Anthropic,” and ensuring that his role as chair is not perceived to benefit the AI company’s public profile or access.
The letter also apologises for not informing the business committee, a point which Byrne had raised in his initial correspondence. The committee chair had also asked whether the government would review its rules around movement between senior public policy roles and major technology companies – Reynolds indicates that no such review is required.
Separately, the committee has published an update from science minister Chris McDonald on the process of identifying Clifford’s successor as ARIA chair – the recruitment process went live last week, as we reported at the time.
As well as outlining the timeline and advisory panel membership, McDonald notes that ARIA board member Nick McKeown – an emeritus professor at Stanford and former senior fellow at Intel – will serve as interim chair until a permanent replacement is in post.