Anthropic CEO claps back after Trump officials accuse firm of AI fear-mongering

Summary

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a statement Tuesday to “set the record straight” on the company’s alignment with Trump administration AI policy, responding to what he called “a recent uptick in inaccurate claims about Anthropic’s policy stances.” “Anthropic is built on a simple principle: AI should be a force for human progress, not peril,” Amodei wrote. “That means making products that are genuinely useful, speaking honestly about risks and benefits, and working with anyone serious about getting this right.” Amodei’s response comes after last week’s dogpiling on Anthropic from AI leaders and top members of the Trump administration, including AI czar David Sacks and White House senior policy advisor for AI Sriram Krishnan — all accusing the AI giant of stoking fears to damage the industry. The first hit came from Sacks after Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark shared his hopes and “appropriate fears” about AI, including that AI is a powerful, mysterious, “somewhat unpredictable” creature, not a dependable machine that’s easily mastered and put to work. Sacks’s response: “Anthropic is running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering. It is principally responsible for the state regulatory frenzy that is damaging the startup ecosystem.” California Senator Scott Wiener, author of AI safety bill SB 53, defended Anthropic, calling out President Trump’s “effort to ban states from acting on AI w/o advancing federal protections.” Sacks then doubled down, claiming Anthropic was working with Wiener to “impose the Left’s vision of AI regulation.” Further commentary ensued, with anti-regulation advocates like Groq COO Sunny Madra saying that Anthropic was “causing chaos for the entire industry” by advocating for a modicum of AI safety measures instead of unfettered innovation. Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025 In his statement, Amodei said managing the societal impacts of AI should be a matter of “policy over politics,” and that he ...