Anthropic's CEO set to dine with President Trump amid AI safety rift

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is having a high-profile weekend, following a parody of him on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live with a dinner invitation to the White House tonight, hosted by President Donald Trump. Axios was first to report on the planned dinner, and other outlets have since confirmed it.

The dinner marks the first one-on-one meeting between Amodei and Trump, coming at a moment when the two find themselves on opposite sides of the debate over AI safety. Amodei has put forward a plan calling for slower, more cautious AI development. Trump, meanwhile, has claimed without evidence that backlash against AI is a Democratic-manufactured hoax, and has pushed to rebrand the technology as "super intelligence."

A history of friction

Even before this recent disagreement, Amodei and Anthropic had a difficult relationship with the Trump administration. Earlier this year, the Pentagon labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the company sought to place guardrails on how its technology is used — a designation Anthropic is contesting in court. Other officials within the administration, however, have reportedly taken a friendlier stance toward the company.