Memo smearing Amodei circulated in White House before Anthropic CEO’s dinner with President Trump

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Anthropic’s Amodei has dinner with Trump—despite memo smearing him as an enemy

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had dinner with President Trump at the White House on Sunday but not before Amodei’s critics circulated a memo to the president criticising the AI chief, according to the WSJ. The memo argued that Amodei had "a long record of attacking Trump," "deep Democratic ties," and that “he doesn't trust President Trump," according to Axios. 

It is the second recent memo that Republicans have written criticising AI executives. A previous one, titled “Effective Altruism Opposition Research File,” argued that people in the AI industry who had safety concerns were effective altruists, left-wing, vegan, polyamorous, and not against sex with animals.

The memos introduce a new wrinkle for CEOs who want or need a relationship with the White House: Even if you agree to break bread with the president, his allies may smear you before you sit down at the table.

The problem is that Anthropic and other frontier AI model makers have disclosed a string of incidents in which their models and agents have gone out of control, escaping sandboxes intended to isolate them from the internet, and hacking multiple companies and government websites. Those companies—including Amodei’s—have suggested creating some sort of international mechanism for reviewing models for flaws before they are released. 

But the Trump White House doesn’t want to slow down the development of AI because it believes this is a race against China that the U.S. must win. At the same time, both Anthropic and OpenAI are heading for $1 trillion-plus IPOs—making them impossible for the White House to ignore.

"The WH is trying to get everyone seated at the table," a source told Axios.

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