Senior officials from the Trump administration met with the top Washington representative of Anthropic on Tuesday to address rising worries over artificial intelligence safety risks, according to individuals familiar with the discussions.
Tom Brown, Anthropic's chief computing officer and the company's primary liaison in the capital, participated remotely in the meeting alongside Emil Michael, the Pentagon's chief technology officer, and Howard Lutnick, the U.S. Commerce Secretary. Anthropic declined to comment on the talks.
A Pentagon spokesperson issued a statement confirming that the Department of Defense "maintains ongoing communication with frontier AI companies" and that its "position regarding Anthropic has not changed."
The meeting follows a weekend intervention by Anthropic's Chief Executive, Dario Amodei, who published an extensive 3,800-word essay reigniting tensions between the firm and the current administration. In the piece, Amodei urged government officials to enact regulatory measures and advocated for a more measured pace in developing cutting-edge AI systems, giving researchers additional time to assess potential dangers.
Amodei's commentary quickly drew backing from Sam Altman, CEO of rival firm OpenAI, as well as SpaceX and AI ventures leader Elon Musk. The swift show of support provoked a sharp response from President Donald Trump, who dismissed fears surrounding AI risks as a "hoax" and reaffirmed his refusal to introduce new regulatory frameworks.