Anthropic, the maker of the AI model Claude, is setting itself apart from its AI competitors through its public distance from President Donald Trump’s administration.

Although Anthropic collaborates with the National Security Agency and the Department of Defense, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has also emerged as a leading voice in AI safety and regulation. At the same time, the administration focuses on expanding AI capacity.

Amodei critiqued feds’ ‘blunt’ approach to AI regulation

A profile of Amodei by The Wall Street Journal, published on Sept. 18, portrays him as the face of “the historically liberal wing of Silicon Valley.”

Amodei believes generative artificial intelligence has a capacity for world-shaking harm. In fact, Amodei left OpenAI in 2020 due to safety concerns. However, unlike his peers, his approach included warnings about the dangers of letting the Trump administration control advanced AI.

Amodei generally advocates for regulation and safety in AI. In a June op-ed, he wrote that the federal government’s plans to block individual states from pursuing AI regulation laws were “too blunt.”

He referred to Trump as a “feudal warlord” before last year’s election, according to the WSJ.

In March, Amodei recommended that the government and AI companies set up classified communication channels to discuss possible risks related to powerful AI.

AI czar Sacks sees Anthropic as ‘doomers’

Another factor in the political forces shaping the future of AI is the opposition between Amodei and Trump’s AI czar David Sacks.

According to the WSJ’s sources, Sacks took Anthropic hiring three Biden administration officials as a sign the company would not align with Sacks’ agenda. Sacks views Anthropic as part of a group of “AI doomers” who are slowing down progress with regulation, according to the WSJ.

Amodei positioned Anthropic’s mission as apolitical.

“Neither woke, or for that matter opposition to woke, has ever had anything to do with what Anthropic is aiming to accomplish in the world,” Amodei said in an interview with the WSJ.

Tech executives favorable to Trump attended a White House dinner and roundtable in early September, with Amodei absent. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Tesla CEO Elon Musk also did not attend the event.

Anthropic publicizes a large number of its AI research projects. This year, Anthropic studied fake reasoning in advanced generative AI, and how AI can avoid dangerous subjects or bias, and how people use their AI tools.

Anthropic reached a $183 billion post-money valuation after its Series F funding round in early September.

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