Matt Clifford quits as ARIA chair over his Anthropic job

Matt Clifford resigned as chair of the UK Advanced Research and Invention Agency after taking a managing-director role in international affairs at Anthropic, which conflicted with ARIA’s commercial licence with the AI firm. The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade approved mitigations, including his recusal from conflicted ARIA business, but senior MPs pressed for his exit. He will stay until 6 November while a successor is identified, with safeguards remaining.