The Scoop
Anthropic is going toe-to-toe with the Trump Administration on artificial intelligence policy, according to a person familiar with the matter, irking White House officials and bucking the trend of AI companies seeking closer ties with the government.
The $60 billion Silicon Valley company responsible for some of the world’s most advanced AI models has been lobbying members of Congress to vote against a federal bill that would preempt states from regulating AI, according to two people familiar with the matter. The bill is a key component of the Trump administration’s efforts to clear the way for US companies to advance the technology.
One of Anthropic’s advisors also pushed against the recent AI deal with Gulf states that would see US technology flow to the region in exchange for an influx of investment money flowing the other direction.
The efforts have angered staffers within the Trump administration working on AI policy who have come to see Anthropic as an obstacle. At a recent meeting at the White House, according to one person familiar with the matter, officials lamented Anthropic’s efforts and called out the company’s hiring of several former Biden Administration staffers, including Elizabeth Kelly and Tarun Chhabra. Ben Buchanan, another Biden official, is an adviser.
Anthropic also employs policy staff who worked for Republicans, like legislative analyst Benjamin Merkel and lobbyist Mary Croghan.
Anthropic declined to comment.
The staffers were also annoyed by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s recent prediction that AI would wipe out half of entry-level, white collar jobs in the next one to five years.
Anthropic’s strategy bucks the overall trend in the tech industry, where most CEOs have taken steps to gain favor with the new administration, attempting to influence it from within, rather than fight its policies.
Know More
The Trump administration has reversed or rewritten many of the policies that defined former President Biden’s strategy on AI.
Influenced by the AI safety movement, then-President Biden signed executive orders that put in place strict guidelines for AI companies, like requirements to inform the federal government when AI models of a certain size are trained.
The Trump administration has replaced many of those orders with its own that are designed to encourage the speed of development and adoption of AI models in the private sector and in government.
AI safety advocates have criticized some of the changes. While congress has been slow to enact laws governing the development and use of AI, states have quickly moved ahead, and tech companies have found themselves lobbying state and local leaders. Last year, there were 600 bills regulating AI in the US, with 100 being signed into law.
The Trump Administration wants to block states from passing laws that could confuse and slow the industry down.
Step Back
Trump officials view the private sector’s development of AI as critical to US national security. China’s AI industry has been gaining on the US and the technology is seen as a potential powerful weapon in any future conflict between the super powers.
Beijing is pumping billions in subsidies into the field in an attempt to catch up with the US on AI, and has overseen an aggressive spying campaign to steal trade secrets from US companies, according to FBI officials.
In an effort to slow China’s advance, the Biden Administration passed strict export controls on US-designed semiconductors, preventing them from being sold in China. As part of the so-called “AI diffusion rule,′ it also put restrictions on chips flowing to Gulf states eager to take part in the AI boom.
The Trump Administration recently reversed on the Gulf policy, opting instead to allow the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to import hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips. The strategy, according to Trump administration officials, is to crowd China out of the region by drawing countries closer.
The deal aims to help offset chip companies’ lost sales due to export controls to China and create an influx of investment money could help fund the AI ambitions of US companies, including building massive new data centers that require a reimagining of the country’s energy infrastructure.
Buchanan, who has been working for Anthropic on safety and other issues, is one of the key architects of the AI diffusion rule. He has opposed the administration’s efforts to cut the AI deal with Gulf states, according to the person familiar with the matter.
Reed’s view
Anthropic was founded by a group of employees who left OpenAI to build a company more narrowly focused on AI safety. It’s not surprising that the company opposes a White House that is more gung-ho on deploying and developing AI.
What’s unusual is that it has done so in a way that has put it on the wrong side of the Trump Administration. Most tech companies oppose some or many policies of the administration, but they’ve decided to cozy up instead, even in some cringeworthy ways.
Opposing the bill preempting state AI laws may not be necessary anyway, because it faces high hurdles in both congress and in the courts.
In other words, Anthropic’s federal lobbying probably won’t make much of a difference. Influencing the White House on its executive orders would have been the best shot.
In the long run, though, maybe it’s a smart strategy. AI researchers may see Anthropic as more principled and it could help with recruiting. The Trump administration won’t be around forever and Anthropic may be better positioned when the next president takes office.
Room for Disagreement
When President Trump repealed the Biden AI executive order, the American Civil Liberties Union called it a “grave mistake” in this article:
“Many of the Biden administration’s directives were basic, common sense steps the government should take any time agencies are experimenting with and deploying a powerful new technology. These steps include robust public transparency and internal oversight (such as agency chief AI officers) as well as regular testing requirements to ensure that AI tools follow existing laws protecting civil rights and civil liberties, accurately perform the tasks they’re given, and don’t waste agency resources. There’s no reason for the Trump administration to jettison those protections.”
Notable
- At the Semafor Tech Summit in San Francisco last week, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark discussed the company’s relationship with the Trump Administration and its views on the chip deal in the Gulf: “On the one side, you want to build out a US-led AI platform around the world. You want to build that on US chips. And you want to have data centers stood up in many different countries. You can think of this as us building out an AI economy. On the other side, if the things come true about AI, which [Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei] says or the CEOs of the other AI labs say, then this technology will become an incredibly powerful dual-use technology and all of those computers around the world are going to become equivalent to factories that can turn out both cars and tanks. You’re going to see which way it goes depending on what the alliances look at that point in time, which is in the future. So, what we’re going to see in the coming years is as the technology gets better, we are going to think about how we apply really good security to these factories that we’ve now built all around the world. And in places where they are existing in countries that haven’t previously been as close to the US, you’re going to have to take a really close look at the security of those factories and what they’re being used for.”