White House hosts ‘productive’ visit with Anthropic CEO

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei visited US officials at the White House on Friday, where they struck a different tone from the recent dispute between the United States’ government and the AI startup.

US media reported Amodei met with Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, as well as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“Today, the White House hosted an introductory meeting with Anthropic that was both productive and constructive,” a White House spokesperson told AFP.

“We discussed opportunities for collaboration, as well as shared approaches and protocols to address the challenges associated with scaling this technology.”

The rhetoric marks a departure from months earlier, when US President Donald Trump instructed the US government to “immediately cease” using Anthropic’s technology after the company refused to allow the Pentagon have unconditional use of its Claude AI models for military purposes.

“We look forward to continuing this dialogue and will host similar discussions with other leading AI companies,” the White House spokesperson added.

Anthropic has since challenged the Trump administration in court, as well as a move by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to add the company to a list of firms that pose a “supply chain risk”.

It is the first time a US company has ever been publicly given such a designation, a label typically reserved for organisations from foreign adversary countries, like Chinese tech company Huawei.

Both cases remain ongoing in US courts.

An Anthropic spokesperson told AFP that Amodei’s meeting at the White House was “a productive discussion on how Anthropic and the US government can work together on key shared priorities such as cybersecurity, America’s lead in the AI race, and AI safety”.

“The meeting reflected Anthropic’s ongoing commitment to engaging with the US government on the development of responsible AI,” the spokesperson added.

Earlier this month, Anthropic announced its newest AI model Mythos, withholding it from public release due to its potential cybersecurity risks.

As a precaution, Anthropic has shared a version of Mythos with cybersecurity companies CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks, as well as with Amazon, Apple and Microsoft in a project it dubbed “Glasswing”.

Anthropic at the time said it has had discussions with the US government regarding Mythos despite a decree by the White House in February to terminate all contracts with the startup.