Anthropic and the US government have not been on the best of terms in recent months, as the US Department of Defense deemed the company a "supply chain risk" after its refusal to remove safeguards designed to prevent its products being used for autonomous weapon and mass surveillance purposes.
The company has since sued, but that hasn't stopped Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei from attending a meeting at the White House after the announcement of its new Claude Mythos AI model earlier this month.
Mythos may have caused a stir all the way to the very top, as it's said to be capable of identifying thousands of high-severity cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and can write its own exploits to demonstrate them.
The model is currently in the preview stage, with a few dozen companies given access to its capabilities. The Anthropic chief spoke to US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, last Friday, according to BBC News, in a meeting that was described by the White House as "productive and constructive".
"We discussed opportunities for collaboration, as well as shared approaches and protocols to address the challenges associated with scaling this technology," the White House said in a reported statement. "The conversation also explored the balance between advancing innovation and ensuring safety."
This friendly-sounding chat stands in stark contrast to comments made by US President Donald Trump about Anthropic in the middle of its dispute with the US Department of War in February. Trump called it a "radical, left, woke company", and claimed that the US government "will not do business with them again."
Despite these remarks, it appears that Claude Mythos has warranted a cooler approach from the US government in regards to dealing with Anthropic's AI developments.
Certainly, an AI model with these sorts of capabilities could represent a potential security risk if it fell into the wrong hands, and a powerful tool for any company, or government, to wield.
For Anthropic's part, a spokesperson for the company said: "The meeting reflected Anthropic’s ongoing commitment to engaging with the US government on the development of responsible AI. We are grateful for their time and are looking forward to continuing these discussions."
