CEO of blacklisted Anthropic is going to the White House - CNN

So Dario Amodei, CEO of the company that has spent the last year convincing policymakers its frontier models could destabilise global finance and require urgent regulation, is now heading to the White House for a 'high-stakes meeting' about getting the very same administration that blacklisted his company to change its mind. This follows the Pentagon's decision to cut ties after Anthropic refused a blanket clause allowing military use for 'all lawful purposes'—a stand that now looks rather less principled when your business model depends on government contracts. The cognitive dissonance is almost impressive: first you sell policymakers on the apocalyptic risk of your own technology, then you sue them when they take you seriously enough to restrict its use.

Amodei's trip comes as Anthropic battles the Trump administration in court over the blacklisting of its Claude AI model, a move that severed lucrative government ties. The company's refusal of that 'all lawful purposes' clause—which would have covered autonomous weapons systems—was the stated reason, though one suspects the administration's broader scepticism about AI safety narratives played its part. Now, with the CEO personally making the pilgrimage to Susie Wiles' office, we're treated to the spectacle of a 'safety-first' lab desperately lobbying for access to the very military-industrial complex it claims to fear. It's the kind of strategic pivot that makes you wonder if 'long-term risk' is just another negotiating tactic when quarterly revenues are at stake.

This isn't even the first time Amodei has tried this door; as we noted previously, he was headed for similar talks just weeks ago. That the White House is entertaining him again, despite the ongoing court battle and the Pentagon's clear stance, suggests either remarkable bureaucratic inertia or a belief that Anthropic's models are simply too useful to ignore. Either way, the whole farce underscores how utterly unserious the 'AI safety' discourse has become: a company can be simultaneously a national security threat in one courtroom and an indispensable partner in the West Wing. One almost admires the chutzpah, if it weren't so transparently cynical.