Anthropic back in talks with Pentagon days after CEO said he refused to give Trump dictator-style praise
Anthropic is back in “last-ditch” talks with the Pentagon to resolve a bitter dispute over AI safeguards — days after CEO Dario Amodei claimed the clash stemmed partly from its refusal to give “dictator-style praise” to President Trump, according to reports.Amodei has been holding discussions with Emil Michael, the War Department’s undersecretary for research and engineering as part of a “last-ditch effort” to reach a contract governing the military’s use of the company’s AI models, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.Talks have reportedly resumed just days after Amodei circulated a 1,600-word memo to staff that accused rival OpenAI of concocting “just straight up lies” about its disputes with the Pentagon over surveillance and autonomous weapons.The Anthropic boss also told employees in the Friday memo he believes the administration’s animus stems from the fact that he declined to “donate to Trump,” tech news site The Information reported earlier.“The real reasons DoW and the Trump admin do not like us is that we haven’t donated to Trump (while OpenAI/Greg have donated a lot)…” Amodei wrote, referencing Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and co-founder.A deal would allow the Pentagon to continue using Anthropic’s technology and could help the company avoid being formally designated a “supply chain risk,” a step threatened by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that would force firms in the military supply chain to cut ties with the startup.Hegseth has yet to make the designation.Amodei, who donated to failed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, blasted what he described as dishonest messaging from OpenAI and the Pentagon, writing in the memo: “I want to be very clear on the messaging that is coming from OpenAI, and the mendacious nature of it.” He added that “a lot of OpenAI and DoW messaging just straight up lies about these issues or tries to confuse them,” and insisted that “it is false that ‘Ope...