President Donald Trump expressed a more positive view of Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, after a recent dinner, potentially easing tensions with the AI company after the Defense Department designated it a supply-chain risk earlier this year.

In an interview with Time Magazine published Thursday, Trump said he left the dinner impressed by Amoedi and his wife, describing the executive as highly intelligent and saying he had a somewhat different impression of him than before, Bloomberg reported.

Trump and Amodei met over dinner on Sunday, marking their first private meeting amid a rather strained relationship between Anthropic and the Trump administration. The company is in an ongoing dispute with the Pentagon over a government contract, while the Commerce Department has also restricted exports involving one of the company’s advanced AI models.

A larger meeting was held Tuesday, bringing together leaders from various artificial intelligence companies and American technology firms to discuss concerns about the rapid expansion of technology and its potential impact on society.

Altman Was Absent

Trump was also questioned about his relationship with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who did not appear at the luncheon. 

When asked whether he trusted Altman, Trump said he likes the OpenAI CEO and explained how the administration is dealing with people who have “a very high level of IQ.”

Amodei, along with other AI industry leaders, has raised concerns about technology’s potential risks to humanity, advocating a slower pace of development and stronger safeguards around these increasingly powerful systems.

Trump has opposed adding mandatory restrictions on AI, saying stricter regulations could hamper the industry’s development and allow China to gain ground in the race to develop and deploy technology.

"If you’re going to seek regulation, they can put you out of business. But my attitude is, we’re winning against the world by a lot, and I want to keep winning," Trump said during the interview with the Times.

Trump also pointed to the administration’s agreement with Intel Corp. as a possible precedent when asked if such deals could be considered for OpenAI or Anthropic.

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