Anthropic uses culture interviews to test mission alignment

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence laboratory behind Claude, utilizes a specialized “culture interview” as a core component of its hiring process. This approximately 45-minute session is designed to evaluate whether candidates are primarily motivated by the company’s AI safety mission or by financial gain.

A central question in these interviews asks candidates how they would react if the company abandoned its AI ambitions for safety reasons, causing its stock price to drop to zero. While co-founder Daniela Amodei has stated that culture interviews have existed since the company’s founding in 2021, reports suggest the specific focus on the conflict between mission and monetary value may have been added later.

The high stakes of joining the firm have led some applicants to spend thousands of dollars on specialized coaching and mock interviews to prepare for these ethical and hypothetical scenarios. CEO Dario Amodei reportedly dedicates a significant portion of his time to ensuring mission alignment as the company scales.