Yes, it's a trust issue. I'm glad he understands that, but I'm not hopeful that he or the industry knows what to do with that information.
Normal humans would work to earn trust by doing good things and not doing bad things. Corporatists, however, just know how to wage PR campaigns both overt and astroturf. That won't work with this issue.
"I think that ordinary people don't trust companies, governments, or the tech industry and always suspect that we are cooking up some new way to screw them over."
Don't wrap the government, other companies, or the entire tech industry up in this. Let's focus on the AI industry and Anthropic. People are suspicious of the AI industry and Anthropic because:
1. Chips: AI industry chip demand is so extreme that it's sending tech advancement BACKWARD at the personal level. For what?
2. Electricity: AI industry is chewing up MASSIVE amounts of electricity (and exhausting huge GHG as a result) and affecting pricing and availability for neighbors. For what..?
3. Water: AI industry is literally thirsty because they want to use evaporative cooling. This is/will waste water... for what?
4. Enshittification: The AI industry has convinced less-tech-competent industries that today's LLMs are ready to replace humans. They're not ready, but they're replacing humans for work and their product is shit.
5. Obvious Abuses: From Flock to DOGE, AI has shown to be most immediately useful at exploiting legal shortcomings, the stupidity of the masses, and zero-day vulnerabilities.
Everything's getting worse for everyone except the rich and everyone's congratulating AI for the job well done. So ya... there's a trust issue and it's well-earned.