Anthropic CEO refutes 'inaccurate claims' from Trump's AI czar David Sacks

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has published a statement directly refuting what he tagged “inaccurate claims” about Anthropic’s policy positions, particularly around AI regulation and safety. 

The statement is a direct response to earlier criticisms by Trump-appointed AI and crypto czar David Sacks, who accused Anthropic of pushing a “woke” agenda and fear-mongering to capture regulators and harm the startup ecosystem. 

Dario Amodei defended Anthropic from accusations 

Amodei was forced to address the “inaccurate claims” about his company’s startup policy stances after the constant criticism from David Sacks, the current AI and crypto czar.

In the statement, published on Anthropic’s official website,  Amodei highlighted how the company is aligned with the Trump administration across “key areas of AI policy,” and that it is interested in working with “anyone serious about getting this right.”

“I fully believe that Anthropic, the administration, and leaders across the political spectrum want the same thing: to ensure that powerful AI technology benefits the American people and that America advances and secures its lead in AI development,” Amodei’s statement read. 

Anthropic, whose valuation has swelled to $183 billion in just four years, got on Sacks’ radar last week after Jack Clark, one of the company’s co-founders and its current head of policy, published an essay titled “Technological Optimism and Appropriate Fear,” sparking a debate over AI regulation online.

Sacks did not like the essay, and he was quite vocal with his criticism, accusing Anthropic of “running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering,” according to a post on X. 

According to him, the company is “principally responsible for the state regulatory frenzy that is damaging the startup ecosystem,” a point Amodei directly tackled in his statement by explaining that startups are among Anthropic’s most important customers. 

“We work with tens of thousands of startups and partner with hundreds of accelerators and VCs,” he wrote. “Claude is powering an entirely new generation of AI-native companies. Damaging that ecosystem makes no sense for us.”

As far as Amodei is concerned, the company’s longstanding position has been that a uniform federal approach is preferable to a patchwork of state laws, and that has not changed.

“When we agree, we say so. When we don’t, we propose an alternative for consideration,” Amodei said. “We do this because we are a public benefit corporation with a mission to ensure that AI benefits everyone and to maintain America’s lead in AI.”

The clash between Sacks and one of Anthropic’s defenders 

A week after Sack’s criticism, Billionaire tech investor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman rose to Anthropic’s defense, calling the startup “one of the good guys.”

Hoffman, who is a partner at VC firm Greylock, which, he revealed, has invested in Anthropic, took to X to classify Anthropic among the few AI companies trying to “deploy AI the right way” which is “thoughtfully, safely, and enormously beneficial for society.” 

“Some other labs are making decisions that clearly disregard safety and societal impact (e.g., bots that sometimes go full-fascist) and that’s a choice,” he added. 

It did not take Sacks long to find the post, which he quickly responded to, triggering a virtual standoff between them on X. In one post, Sacks claimed the “real issue” is “Anthropic’s agenda to backdoor Woke AI and other AI regulations through Blue states like California.”

Sacks also called Hoffman “the leading funder of lawfare and dirty tricks against President Trump” while Elon Musk, whose AI lab was not listed in Hoffman’s post, also chimed in with a one-word endorsement of Sacks’ stance.

Hoffman responded by writing: “Shows you didn’t read the post (not shocked). When you are ready to have a professional conversation about AI’s impact on America, I’m here to chat.”

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