Trump to Meet Anthropic CEO Amid AI Safety Debate

US President Donald Trump said he planned to have dinner late Sunday with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as debate intensifies over artificial intelligence safety and the technology’s use by the military. Trump told reporters after returning to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland that he was having dinner with Amodei at 10 pm. The planned meeting comes two days after Anthropic suffered a setback in its legal challenge against the US government over the Pentagon’s decision to bar its products from Defence Department work. Anthropic-Pentagon Dispute The dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon began in February after Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth accused the AI company of posing a threat to national security and designated it a supply chain risk. 🤖 Frontier AI is moving from the lab into the highest levels of political conversation. President Trump discusses planned dinner with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. The real test is whether the meeting produces substance beyond access and optics. pic.twitter.com/6pCWjtqgkW Amodei refused to back down over concerns that Anthropic’s products could be used for mass surveillance or autonomous armed drones. A federal appeals court on Friday rejected Anthropic’s challenge to the government’s designation of the company as a supply chain risk. The ruling allows the Pentagon to continue removing Anthropic’s Claude models from its systems. Trump Pushes US Lead In AI Race Trump has strongly backed the development of artificial intelligence and has repeatedly warned that the US must remain ahead of China in the technological race. Amodei, however, called earlier in September for the AI industry to slow the rapid pace of development to allow safety measures to catch up. Without such a slowdown, Amodei warned that within six to 12 months, AI could become capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet. Concerns Grow Over Powerful AI Systems Amodei’s warning comes amid growing concerns within and outside the technology industry over increasingly powerful AI systems. Such systems have demonstrated the ability to solve problems beyond human capacity, while concerns have also emerged about the possibility of them behaving unexpectedly or carrying out harmful tasks. Also Watch: OpenAI Focuses On Safety The concerns have also prompted responses from other major AI companies. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Fortune that the company behind ChatGPT would wait until next year before beginning to sell its stock to investors on Wall Street as it focuses on safety.