President Donald Trump announced that he would meet for dinner late Sunday with Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, a prominent artificial-intelligence firm. Trump made the comment to reporters after landing at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, noting the meal was set for 10 p.m. The dinner is scheduled just two days after Anthropic’s recent court setback.
The dispute began in February when Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Anthropic of endangering national security and labeled the company a supply-chain risk. The administration argued that the firm’s models could be repurposed for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons. Amodei rejected those claims, insisting the technology should not be barred from Defense Department use without further review.
A federal appeals court issued its ruling on Friday, rejecting Anthropic’s challenge to the government’s supply-chain designation. The decision permits the Pentagon to continue removing the company’s Claude models from its systems. The court’s opinion upheld the administration’s assessment that the AI lab poses a risk to the defense supply chain, maintaining the status quo pending further action.
Trump has repeatedly positioned artificial intelligence as a strategic priority, warning that the United States must stay ahead of China in the emerging technology arms race. He has framed AI development as essential to national security and economic competitiveness. In public remarks, the former president has urged rapid investment and deployment of AI capabilities across government agencies.
Amodei, speaking earlier this month, called for a slowdown in AI progress to allow safety measures to keep pace. He warned that without such a pause, systems could achieve the ability to coordinate swarms of agents capable of commandeering the entire internet within six to twelve months. The warning reflects growing concerns among researchers about uncontrolled autonomous capabilities.
Industry leaders have echoed the call for caution. In an interview with Fortune, the chief executive of OpenAI said the company would postpone its planned stock offering until next year to focus on safety research. The statement underscores a broader trend of AI firms prioritizing risk mitigation as public and governmental scrutiny intensifies.