Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced Friday that former deputy White House chief of staff Chris Liddell has been appointed to its board of directors.
Liddell served as deputy chief of staff for policy coordination during President Donald Trump’s first term, when he helped oversee technology, economic, and regulatory initiatives. Before entering government, he held senior executive roles at major corporations, including Microsoft and General Motors. Daniela Amodei, co-founder and president of Anthropic, said in a news release that Liddell’s experience in governance and technology makes him the right fit for its board of directors.
“Chris has spent his career at the intersection of technology, public service, and governance — and has a track record of helping organizations get those things right when the stakes are highest,” Amodei said. “As AI’s impact on society grows, that kind of judgement and experience is exactly what we seek on our board.”
Anthropic, founded in 2021, has recently expanded its presence in Washington as it increased its lobbying activity and has sought to position itself as a leading voice in AI safety discussions, even as it competes with other major developers to advance increasingly powerful models.
The company has taken a bipartisan approach by working with both Republican- and Democrat-backed firms to lobby on its behalf.
The appointment comes after tensions arose over the direction of AI regulation between Anthropic and the White House.
In October 2025, disagreements surfaced publicly between Anthropic leaders and Trump’s AI and crypto czar, David Sacks.
Jack Clark, one of Anthropic’s co-founders and its current head of policy, published an essay called “Technological Optimism and Appropriate Fear,” which cautioned against unpredictable AI systems.
Sacks criticized the essay and called it “fearmongering” that is damaging the AI startup market.
The friction highlighted broader divides over how aggressively Washington should regulate fast-moving AI technologies.
The Trump administration has generally favored a lighter regulatory touch, such as a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would have enacted a 10-year suspension on state-level AI laws.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei made amendments to the AI provision in the OBBBA, but the particular AI legislation failed to be enacted.
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After the dispute, Dario Amodei issued a statement that the AI startup and the White House generally agree on AI policy, but continued to advocate enforceable federal safeguards.
“Anthropic is committed to constructive engagement on matters of public policy,” Dario Amodei said. “When we agree, we say so. When we don’t, we propose an alternative for consideration. We do this because we are a public benefit corporation with a mission to ensure that AI benefits everyone, and because we want to maintain America’s lead in AI. Again, we believe we share those goals with the Trump administration, both sides of Congress, and the public.”
