Aria chair steps aside after conflict of interest concerns over role at Anthropic

The chair of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) Matt Clifford has resigned days after announcing that he is taking up a full-time role at the US tech firm Anthropic. Concerns had been raised that Clifford’s new job at the company behind the Claude AI models could represent a significant conflict of interest.

Clifford, who had a background in tech commercialisation and had served on the council of Innovate UK, was appointed as Aria’s first chairperson in July 2022. More recently Clifford had served as former prime minister Keir Starmer’s AI opportunities adviser, devising the government’s AI action plan, which led to the establishment of the £500 million Sovereign AI Fund this year.