Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei denies call to ban open-weight models

The news: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has stated that the company "has never advocated for a ban on open-weights models" after it refused to sign an open letter backing the technology as the US considers restricting Chinese models.

The context: The open letter, released over the weekend, outlined the benefits of open weight models, which publicly disclose key development parameters, and cautioned against prohibition. It was signed by dozens of companies including Nvidia, OpenAI, SpaceX, Microsoft and Google.

Following the release of powerful new Chinese models rivalling the latest US offerings, the US government has been considering restricting access to the Chinese models.

While Anthropic has not signed the letter Amodei said in a blog post released on Tuesday morning (AEST) that "open-weight models that don't have dangerous capabilities are a public good: they don't cost anything besides the compute needed to run them, and they provide value to business, developers, and researchers".