Every week after Anthropic discovered itself attacked by the Trump administration, the corporate has discovered a defender in Reid Hoffman. CEO Dario Amodei additionally published a lengthy statement rebutting “inaccurate claims” concerning the firm’s coverage positions, which used Vice President JD Vance’s phrases in opposition to the White Home’s chief AI advisor.
Hoffman, a companion at VC agency Greylock, which, he said, has invested in Anthropic, praised the AI lab as “one of many good guys” in an try and push again in opposition to assaults by White Home AI and crypto czar David Sacks. Sacks accused Anthropic of utilizing “a classy regulatory seize technique primarily based on fearmongering” to advance regulation, an strategy he says is stifling innovation and startups.
“Anthropic, together with some others (incl Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI) are attempting to deploy AI the correct method, thoughtfully, safely, and enormously useful for society,” Hoffman wrote in a post on X. “Another labs are making selections that clearly disregard security and societal impression (e.g., bots that generally go full-fascist) and that’s a selection.”
Sacks fired again, calling Hoffman “the main funder of lawfare and soiled methods in opposition to President Trump.” Fellow PayPal mafia member Elon Musk, who runs xAI, an AI lab not listed in Hoffman’s submit, additionally chimed in with a one-word endorsement of Sacks.
Hoffman responded, writing: “Exhibits you didn’t learn the submit (not shocked). When you find yourself able to have an expert dialog about AI’s impression on America, I’m right here to speak.”
Following that, Amodei immediately printed a press release clearly meant to reference Sacks: “There was a current uptick in inaccurate claims about Anthropic’s coverage stances. Some are vital sufficient that they warrant setting the report straight.”
He additionally tried to place himself on the side of Vance. “I strongly agree with Vice President JD Vance’s recent comments on AI—notably his level that we have to maximize purposes that assist individuals, like breakthroughs in drugs and illness prevention, whereas minimizing the dangerous ones. This place is each sensible and what the general public overwhelmingly wants.”
Tech tensions over AI coverage
Over the previous yr, Anthropic has positioned itself as an advocate of AI security and regulation. The corporate has supported state-level regulation, repeatedly opposing a Trump administration–proposed federal preemption invoice that tried to dam state-level AI regulation for a decade.
Anthropic was additionally the one main AI lab to again California’s SB 53, a not too long ago handed invoice that regulated AI corporations in its residence state, requiring extra transparency from main AI labs. Amodei has additionally publicly criticized the Trump administration’s management prior to now, likening Trump to a “feudal warlord.” Extra not too long ago, Amodei criticized the Trump administration’s handling of superior AI chip export restrictions, urging stricter export controls to China in an effort to defend U.S. nationwide safety.
Regardless of the repeated public jabs at Anthropic from Sacks, the AI czar has pushed again on claims that he’s actively focusing on the corporate. He publicly disputed a Bloomberg report suggesting his criticism fueled federal scrutiny of the AI lab. In a submit on X, he wrote: “Nothing could possibly be farther from the reality,” noting that the White Home not too long ago authorized Anthropic’s Claude app for presidency use. As a substitute, Sacks argued that the AI firm had intentionally portrayed itself “as a foe of the Trump administration.”
In his official place as AI czar, Sacks has argued that AI regulation, particularly on the state stage, dangers making a “patchwork” system that will stifle U.S. innovation and put the nation liable to dropping a worldwide AI arms race. His stance aligns with a broader push amongst pro-Trump tech leaders to prioritize pace and competitiveness over regulation.
“The U.S. is at present in an AI race, and our chief world competitors is China,” Sacks stated in an onstage interview at Salesforce’s Dreamforce convention in San Francisco this week. “They’re the one different nation that has the expertise, the assets, and the expertise experience to principally beat us in AI.”
A rising rift in Silicon Valley
The spat between the White Home and Anthropic has sparked a wider divide in Silicon Valley.
Sriram Krishnan, a senior White Home coverage advisor on AI and one of many authors of the American AI Motion Plan, additionally weighed in final week. Sharing considered one of Sacks’ posts on X, Krishnan argued that the EA (Efficient Altruism) and AI security foyer had been historically allied with the left and have been indignant over misplaced affect and credibility.
Krishnan referred to as out members of an “AI security industrial advanced” and accused security teams of making an attempt to “sneak in AI legal guidelines for all the nation utilizing their affect in a single state [California],” warning that overregulation might cede the sphere to China and stifle innovation.
Representatives for the White Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
