US President Donald Trump plans to host a late dinner on Sunday with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, a top AI executive who has cautioned against the technology’s rapid pace, even as the president warns against slowing it.
The meeting follows months of open conflict between the AI startup, developer of Claude, and the Trump administration.
The private dinner is the first one-on-one meeting between the two men, according to US media outlet Axios, which first reported the plans later confirmed by Trump.
Upon arriving 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 on the tarmac.
“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, prohibiting the United States military from using its models.
The startup had been sanctioned 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 criticized Amodei, saying he was trying to be “a perfect little angel” after the Anthropic chief called for a break in AI development.
Amodei was absent on Thursday from the White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping, which was attended by AI industry leaders, including Amodei’s biggest rival, Sam Altman of OpenAI (makers of ChatGPT).
Despite mounting calls to slow down AI development due to the risk of losing human control, Trump insisted that the sector’s major players — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta — cannot afford to pause over fears that China will gain the upper hand.
When asked on Sunday about numerous security incidents caused by advanced AI models, including hacking into commercial and government websites, the Republican president dismissed these concerns, saying “I’m not worried about it.”
Trump and Mike Johnson, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, are also set to meet with leading AI executives on Tuesday.