President Donald Trump said it’s still “possible” that the administration will make a deal with Anthropic, allowing the military to use the company’s artificial intelligence models and overturning the government’s “supply-chain risk” designation.
Trump’s Tuesday morning comments came days after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with senior administration officials at the White House in an effort to smooth over the rift between the two sides.
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“They came to the White House a few days ago, and we had some very good talks with them, and I think they’re shaping up,” Trump said during an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box. “They’re very smart, and I think they can be of great use.”
In March, the Pentagon tagged the AI company as a “supply-chain risk,” a designation usually reserved for foreign entities, after bitter negotiations between Anthropic and the War Department failed to make a breakthrough regarding the use of Claude, the company’s AI chatbot.
Anthropic wanted assurances from the Pentagon that Claude would not be used for mass domestic surveillance or to operate fully autonomous weapons.
Pentagon officials disputed the claims and argued that it would now allow any private company to dictate how it uses systems in war, and maintained that they wanted complete authorization for “any lawful use.”
Since then, the company has filed two lawsuits challenging the designation, which are now playing out in the court system.
Amodei’s recent visit to the White House seems to have helped ease some of the tension between the two sides.
Amodei “met with senior administration officials for a productive discussion on how Anthropic and the U.S. government can work together on key shared priorities such as cybersecurity, America’s lead in the AI race, and AI safety,” an Anthropic spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
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“The meeting reflected Anthropic’s ongoing commitment to engaging with the U.S. government on the development of responsible AI. We are grateful for their time and are looking forward to continuing these discussions,” the spokesperson added.
