Trump Froze Out Anthropic -- Now He Says They're 'Very Smart'

Anthropic is moving closer to restoring ties with the U.S. Department of Defense after President Donald Trump said the artificial intelligence company was improving its standing with his administration, raising the prospect that the Pentagon could revisit its ban.

Trump's comments followed a White House meeting with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and White House officials to discuss collaboration and guardrails around advanced AI systems.

Anthropic said the discussion centered on how the two "can work together on key shared priorities such as cybersecurity, America's lead in the AI race and AI safety."

Reuters reported that Trump told CNBC's "Squawk Box" he believed the company was "shaping up" and suggested an agreement with the Pentagon could be possible. He added, "It's possible. We want the smartest people."

Anthropic has pushed back on that assessment and sued the Defense Department in March over the designation.

In the background, Anthropic has been drawing attention for its new AI model Mythos, which it has described as its "most advanced model" and which experts have said could spot software security flaws and map out ways to exploit them.

The company has said the Claude Mythos Preview won't be broadly released and instead is being tested through Project Glasswing with selected partners, including JPMorgan Chase, Apple, Google, Microsoft, among others.

Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark said last week the company was in discussions with the Trump administration about Mythos, without sharing further details.

Photo: Shutterstock

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