Anthropic CEO Amodei meets Trump for late‑night White House talks as AI tensions mount

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei appears by video during a UN Security Council meeting on artificial intelligence during the 81st United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York September 23, 2026. — AFP pic

First Published: Monday, 28 Sep 2026 1:10 PM MYT

WASHINGTON, Sept 28 — President Donald Trump said he will have a late dinner tonight with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, the top AI executive who has cautioned about the technology’s breakneck pace of development even as the president warns against slowing it.

The meeting comes after months of open conflict between the artificial intelligence startup and the Trump administration.

The private dinner is the first one-on-one meeting between the two men, according to US media including Axios, which first reported the dinner plan.

As he arrived at Joint Base Andrews near Washington after attending a golf tournament in Chicago, Trump joked about putting in a long day and having a late meal with Amodei.

“And tonight, I’m having dinner with the head of Anthropic, so these are long days, but I seem to be able to handle it. Right?,” Trump told reporters.

“So now I’m having dinner with Dario from, as you know, very highly respected, from Anthropic,” Trump said.

The invitation comes two days after a federal appeals court upheld the Pentagon’s decision to classify Anthropic as a supply chain risk, which prohibits the United States military from using its models.

The startup had been punished with sanctions by the Trump administration after refusing in February to allow its models to be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.

Trump also badmouthed Amodei, saying he was trying to be “a perfect little angel” after the Anthropic chief called for a pause in AI development.

Amodei was absent Thursday at the state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping attended by AI industry leaders, including Amodei rival Sam Altman of OpenAI.

Despite mounting calls to slow down AI development due to the risk of losing human control of the technology, Trump insists the sector’s major players — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta — cannot afford to slow down for fear that China will gain the upper hand.

Asked Sunday by Fox News about the numerous security incidents caused by advanced AI models, the president dismissed these concerns, saying “I’m not worried about it.”

Trump and Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, are set to meet with leading AI executives on Tuesday. — AFP