Matt Clifford is stepping down as chair of the UK's taxpayer-funded Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), reversing his earlier plan to keep the role while taking up a new position at Anthropic. The reversal follows criticism from Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, who warned last week that holding both jobs simultaneously created a "clear conflict of interest," given ARIA's role in funding high-risk scientific and technological research, including AI work.

Clifford said on LinkedIn that he had decided to leave so his new role as Anthropic's managing director of international affairs, where he will lead engagement with governments outside North America, would not become "a distraction" from ARIA's work. He will remain in post until 6 November at the request of the Secretary of State while a successor is found, with safeguards in place in the interim. Onwurah welcomed the decision but said questions remain over how the conflict was allowed to arise in the first place, and she expects a detailed government response to her written queries in the coming weeks. Clifford has been a central figure in UK AI policy, having helped establish the Frontier AI Taskforce (now the AI Security Institute), contributed to the 2023 AI Safety Summit, and authored the government's AI Opportunities Action Plan.