U.S. Government Makes Contact with Anthropic

The White House said it held a "productive and constructive" meeting with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

The meeting came shortly after concerns emerged that Anthropic's newly disclosed Claude Mythos preview could outperform humans in hacking and cybersecurity tasks. The tool is currently available to only dozens of companies, and researchers rated it as "noticeably powerful" at computer security tasks.

Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, and Susie Wiles, the White House Chief of Staff, attended the meeting. The White House explained that they discussed balancing technological advancement with ensuring safety, as well as response protocols and possible cooperation as this technology spreads.

Behind this lies a conflict between Anthropic and the U.S. Department of Defense.

• Anthropic filed a lawsuit after receiving a supply chain risk label from the Department of Defense and federal agencies.
• The company claimed the action was retaliatory, and the court accepted some of its arguments.
• However, the appellate court did not grant the request for a temporary block.

While the White House has previously shown a negative stance toward Anthropic, this meeting shows that the government finds it hard to ignore the importance of Anthropic's technology.