In a surprise announcement on LinkedIn today, former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak revealed that he has joined Microsoft and Anthropic as a senior advisor. He has updated his LinkedIn profile with this role in his experience history too, and while there aren"t concrete details about what Sunak will be advising on, the ex-PM has given an overview.
Apparently, Sunak will help both firms in tackling "big strategic questions" about how to leverage tech to boost economies, security, and society overall. He went on to say that:
Microsoft has driven productivity improvements for decades and Anthropic is one of the most exciting AI frontier labs. [...] We stand on the edge of a technological revolution whose impacts will be as profound as those of the industrial revolution: and felt more quickly. In my role as a senior adviser, I want to help these companies ensure that this shift delivers the improvements in all of our lives that it can.
Reuters reports that Sunak"s role at Anthropic is part-time and complies with the UK"s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA), a body responsible for overseeing new appointments of senior civil servants and former ministers, such as Sunak.
At Anthropic, Sunak will be advising the company on macroeconomic and geopolitical trends at a global scale, not just in the UK. His role at Microsoft will be similar, but he"s also expected to speak at the annual Microsoft Summit. ACOBA has emphasized that Sunak will not be giving advice to Microsoft regarding UK policies.
While Rishi Sunak is not the leader of the Conservative Party anymore, he is still a member of the UK parliament, which means that he is restricted from lobbying for Microsoft and Anthropic until two years have passed since his last day as a minister.
Currently, Rishi Sunak also occupies the role of senior advisor at Goldman Sachs. That said, he has clarified that his earnings from the roles at Microsoft and Anthropic will go towards the The Richmond Project, a charity founded by him and his wife Akshata Murty.