The White House administration has reportedly held a meeting with the CEO of artificial intelligence company Anthropic, Dario Amodei, last Friday. The meeting was described as "productive and constructive," despite the firm currently being engaged in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies over a controversial "supply chain risk" designation.
The meeting took place just a week after Anthropic released a preview of its new AI tool, Claude Mythos, which the company claims can outperform humans in certain hacking and cybersecurity tasks. So far, only a few dozen companies have been granted access to the tool, but researchers have noted it is "strikingly capable at computer security tasks," including finding and exploiting bugs in decades-old code.
This engagement marks a potential shift in the previously tense relationship between the U.S. government and Anthropic. In March, the company took legal action after being labeled a supply chain risk—a designation meaning the technology is not secure enough for government use. Anthropic argued in court that the label was simple retaliation by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth because Amodei had refused to grant the Pentagon unfettered use of its AI tools over fears they could be used for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
Despite the legal battle and harsh criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, who previously directed all government agencies to stop using Anthropic and called the company run by "left wing nut jobs," the White House meeting suggests the firm's technology may be too critical to ignore. Court records indicate Anthropic's tools are still in use at many government agencies that had been using them before the designation.
The White House statement following the meeting was measured, stating they "discussed opportunities for collaboration, as well as shared approaches and protocols to address the challenges associated with scaling this technology" and "explored the balance between advancing innovation and ensuring safety." This contrasts with the administration's earlier stance, which had said little positive about the company. When asked about the meeting by reporters on Friday, President Trump claimed he had "no idea" it had taken place.
Source: www.bbc.com