Anthropy’s CEO applauds after Trump officials accused the company of fear-mongering about artificial intelligence

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei posted a statement on Tuesday to “set the record straight” about the company’s alignment with the Trump administration’s AI policy, in response to what he called a “recent rise in inaccurate claims about Anthropic’s policy positions.”

“Humanity is built on a simple principle: artificial intelligence should be a force for human progress, not a danger,” Amodei wrote. “This means making products that are truly useful, talking openly about the risks and benefits, and working with anyone who is serious about getting this right.”

Amodei’s response follows last week’s criticism of AI leaders and senior members of the Trump administration, including AI czar David Sachs and White House senior policy advisor for AI Sriram Krishnan — all of whom accuse the AI ​​giant of stoking fears to harm the industry.

Sacks’ first jab came after Anthropic co-founder Jack Clarke shared his hopes and “appropriate fears” about AI, including that AI is a powerful, mysterious, and “somewhat unpredictable” creature, not a reliable machine that can be easily mastered and operated.

“Anthropic operates a sophisticated, fear-mongering strategy of regulatory capture,” Sachs responded. “It is primarily responsible for the state’s regulatory frenzy that is damaging the startup ecosystem.”

California Sen. Scott Wiener, author of the AI ​​safety bill SB 53, defended Anthropic, calling President Trump’s effort “to prevent states from working on AI without strengthening federal protections.” Sachs then redoubled his efforts, claiming that Anthropic was working with Weiner to “impose the left’s vision of AI regulation.”

More commentary followed, with anti-regulation advocates like Groq COO Sunny Madra saying Anthropic is “creating chaos for the entire industry” by calling for minimal AI safety measures rather than unfettered innovation.

In his statement, Amodei said that managing the societal impacts of AI should be a matter of “more politics than politics,” and that he believes everyone wants to make sure America secures its leadership in AI development while also building technology that benefits the American people. He defended Anthropic’s alliance with the Trump administration on key AI policy areas, and cited examples of times he personally played with the president.

As an example, Amodei pointed to Anthropic’s work with the federal government, including the company’s CLOUD bid for the federal government and Anthropic’s $200 million agreement with the Department of Defense (which Amodei called the “War Department,” reflecting Trump’s preferred term, though changing the name would require congressional approval). He also noted that Anthropic has publicly praised Trump’s AI action plan and has been supportive of Trump’s efforts to expand energy savings in order to “win the AI ​​race.”

Despite these offers of collaboration, Anthropic has received criticism from industry peers for departing from the Silicon Valley consensus on some policy issues.

The company initially angered Silicon Valley-connected officials when it opposed a proposed 10-year ban on state-level AI regulation, a provision that faced widespread bipartisan opposition.

Many in Silicon Valley, including OpenAI leaders, have claimed that government AI regulation would slow the industry and give China the lead. Amodei responded that the real risk is that the United States continues to fill Chinese data centers with powerful AI chips from Nvidia, adding that Anthropic is restricting the sale of its AI services to Chinese-controlled companies despite declining revenues.

“There are products we won’t build and risks we won’t take, even if they make money,” Amodei said.

Anthropic was also unpopular with some powerful players when it backed California’s SB 53, a light-hearted safety bill that would require the largest AI developers to make borderline standard safety protocols public. Amodei noted that the draft law is intended for companies with annual gross revenues of less than $500 million, which would relieve most startups of any undue burdens.

“Some have suggested that we are somehow interested in hurting the startup ecosystem,” Amodei wrote, referring to Sachs’ post. “Startups are among our most important customers. We work with tens of thousands of startups and partner with hundreds of accelerators and VCs. Claude is powering a whole new generation of AI-driven companies. Damaging this ecosystem makes no sense to us.”

Amodei said in his statement that Anthropic’s run rate has grown from $1 billion to $7 billion over the past nine months while managing to deploy “AI thoughtfully and responsibly.”

“Anthropic is committed to constructive engagement on public policy issues. When we agree, we say so. When we disagree, we propose an alternative for consideration,” Amodei wrote. “We will remain honest and direct, and we will advocate for policies that we believe are right. The risks posed by this technology are too great to do otherwise.”