WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump has said he no longer considers artificial intelligence firm Anthropic a national security threat, after expressing concerns over the company’s handling of access to its most advanced AI models.
In an interview with The Axios Show published on Friday, Trump said he may have viewed Anthropic and its chief executive officer, Dario Amodei, as a potential security concern a week earlier, but his position had since changed.
“Well, not now, but a week ago, maybe,” Trump said when asked whether he regarded Anthropic or Amodei as a threat to national security.
The remarks come amid a dispute over foreign access to Anthropic’s latest AI systems, Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Senior company officials were scheduled to meet members of the Trump administration this week to discuss the issue.
Anthropic had suspended access to the two models for all users last week after Trump directed the company to prevent foreign nationals from using them.
Trump told Axios that Anthropic had responded to the administration’s export-control directive “very quickly” and “responsibly”.
The US president and other Group of Seven (G7) leaders met technology executives, including Amodei, during a summit in France this week.
Trump also declined to rule out the possibility of invoking emergency powers under the Defence Production Act (DPA) in relation to Anthropic, though he suggested such action might not be necessary.
“I have the power to use a lot of things,” he said. “But I’m not sure I have to do that.”
In response to Trump’s comments, an Anthropic spokesperson said the company appreciated its ongoing engagement with the administration and remained committed to working with US authorities.
“We are grateful to the administration for their ongoing partnership in working to get this matter resolved as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said. “We remain committed to working alongside them towards our shared goals of protecting critical infrastructure and making sure the US leads in AI.”
