Anthropic CEO Lands White House Meeting as Feud Thaws

Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO, will meet White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to ease tensions amid the release of its new AI model, Mythos.

WASHINGTON -- Dario Amodei is scheduled to meet White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in the West Wing on Friday, one of the Anthropic chief executive's most high-profile efforts to ease tensions with the Trump administration, people familiar with the matter said.

The Friday meeting comes as the White House races to prepare for Anthropic's latest artificial-intelligence model, Mythos, which the company says could pose cybersecurity risks that cause widespread online disruption.

Anthropic has released a preview version of the model to tech giants and organizations that run critical infrastructure and has been briefing government officials about minimizing harms. It currently has no plans to release it to the public.

Anthropic is in talks to give government agencies advance access to the model, the people said.

Anthropic and the White House have been locked in a bitter feud for months over guardrails surrounding the Pentagon's use of the company's Claude models. Anthropic refused to agree to the Defense Department's demand to allow its technology to be used for "all lawful uses," prompting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to label the company a security risk and President Trump to direct federal agencies to cut ties with Amodei's company.

Anthropic said it wanted explicit protections against AI being used for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.

The company is fighting the government's moves in two different courts, creating uncertainty for both sides while the company's technology has been used during the conflict in Iran.

Mythos is forcing both sides to return to the negotiating table and providing a venue for peace talks, people familiar with the matter said. Earlier this week, a top official at the Office of Management and Budget told government agencies in an email that it is putting in place protections to allow them to begin using Mythos, the people said. The email was a response to moves by National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, who is coordinating the government's response, one of the people said.

Anthropic has also hired lobbyists friendly with the administration as it seeks to make peace. After Hegseth designated the company a supply-chain risk, it hired Brian Ballard, a mega-lobbyist who raised more than $50 million for Trump in the 2024 election. The company also works with a firm founded by Carlos Trujillo, who served in the first Trump administration.

The Pentagon has reached deals with Anthropic rival OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI to use their models in classified settings, but it will likely take months before they can be embedded in operations the way Anthropic is, security analysts have said.

The analysts have said it is counterproductive for the government to be punishing one of the nation's top AI companies as it prepares to release models that could pose cybersecurity risks.

Analysts following Anthropic have also said it could hurt the company's ambitions to be a top model provider preparing to go public if Republicans perceive it as a firm aligned with Democrats that is willing to take on a Republican administration. Some have said the company should have taken a less combative approach in negotiating with the Defense Department. Anthropic has donated to a political group opposing the Trump administration's AI strategy in the midterms and hired former members of the Biden administration.

Amodei has held talks with Hegseth and other Trump administration officials in the past, but the meeting with Wiles is among the most high-profile discussions, the people said. Axios earlier reported the meeting was scheduled. Bloomberg previously reported the OMB email about agencies getting access to Mythos.

The administration has also held discussions featuring Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with leading tech and financial executives including Amodei about coordinating the private sector's preparation for Mythos.