The New 'Gilded Age' Needs Civic Leaders, Not Just Philanthropists

With artificial intelligence (AI) companies like OpenAI and Anthropic expected to generate enormous personal fortunes in the years ahead, speculation is already mounting about how this new class of ultra-wealthy individuals will direct this windfall, and what that might mean for society. It is reasonable to assume that at least a portion of these fortunes will flow into philanthropy, potentially adding hundreds of billions of dollars in new charitable giving over time.

Predictably, much of the public discourse has focused on which problems these new philanthropists should choose to address and the practical questions that follow: What funding strategies will be most effective? What kinds of organizations should be built or scaled? What infrastructure, talent and organizational forms will be required to translate these resources into meaningful impact?

These are important questions but perhaps not the most important for our time. The more weighty question is what responsibilities accompany extraordinary wealth in a world beset with declining trust in institutions, deep polarization and widespread feelings of political and economic disenfranchisement.

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