Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who led the U.S. central bank through the 2008 global financial crisis, has joined Anthropic’s independent oversight body, the Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust, the AI giant announced Thursday. The Trust is supposed to ensure the company develops advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity, with the power to appoint Anthropic board members and advise on AI’s societal impact. Bernanke is now one of four members of the Trust, joining social entrepreneur Neil Buddy Shah, former national security official Richard Fontaine, and former intelligence advisor Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar. Anthropic said Bernanke's experience studying financial crises and steering the U.S. economy through a turbulent period would help assess AI's effects on workforces and the broader economy. Bernanke's appointment comes as some investors and economists warn that the flood of capital into artificial intelligence resembles the speculative excess of past market booms. The announcement also follows a turbulent stretch for Anthropic's relationship with the Trump administration, after the Commerce Department temporarily subjected the company's newest AI models to export controls before reversing course.