Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei is set to have a private dinner with Donald Trump at the White House, in the first reported one-to-one meeting between the two men.
The dinner, due to take place on Sunday evening, follows months of open conflict between the artificial intelligence company and the US president’s administration.
Mr Trump confirmed the meeting and repeated his opposition to any move that could slow the pace of AI development. He said tighter regulation risked allowing China to overtake the United States in the technology.
While acknowledging Mr Amodei’s concerns that moving too quickly could increase the risks posed by AI, Mr Trump said maintaining America’s technological lead was more important.
“We’re about maybe a year and a half up on China,” Mr Trump told Fox News while attending the Presidents Cup golf tournament in Illinois.
“We’re leading, and we’re building tremendous, trillions of dollars’ worth of places. And why should we give that up?”
Anthropic’s dispute with the Trump administration
The meeting comes two days after a federal appeals court upheld the Pentagon’s decision to classify Anthropic as a “supply chain risk”. The designation prevents the US military from using the company’s models.
The Trump administration sanctioned Anthropic after the company refused in February to permit its tools to be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.
Mr Trump has also criticised Mr Amodei, accusing him of trying to be “a perfect little angel” after the Anthropic chief called for a pause in AI development.
Mr Amodei was absent from Thursday’s state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping, which was attended by AI industry figures including OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.
The president and Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, are due to meet leading AI executives on Tuesday. The US Government believes major companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta cannot afford to slow development because China could gain the advantage.
