Anthropic’s boss apologises for bashing Pentagon—but still plans to sue

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.DARIO AMODEI, the boss of Anthropic, says he is sorry. In his first interview since the Pentagon labelled the AI lab a supply-chain risk—the first American company to receive that designation—he offered a mea culpa for the way he handled a crisis that he described as one of the most “disorienting” in Anthropic’s history. Yet he also said he would challenge the Pentagon’s designation in court in order to avoid a “chilling” impact on Anthropic’s business.The Department of War’s designation has come as a heavy blow to Anthropic, one of America’s leading model-makers with a valuation of $380bn.

It is in effect a blacklisting usually meted out to foreign adversaries. It arrived on March 4th, hours after the leak of an intemperate memo that Mr Amodei sent to staff, in which he blamed a weeks-long row with the Pentagon on his failure to lavish “dictator-style praise” on President Donald Trump.In a surprisingly chipper mood, Mr Amodei spent more than an hour talking animatedly to The Economist’s editor in chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, about the dispute with the Pentagon and its wider ramifications. He said the company would be “fine”.

He was both frank and contrite about the leaked missive. “I want to completely apologise for this memo,” which he admitted was not a very “considered or refined” version of his thinking. When asked whether he would say sorry to Mr Trump, he added: “I’ve apologised to the people that I’m talking to…I’m happy to speak to others within the administration as well.”Mr Amodei claimed that the Pentagon’s sanction would not impact Anthropic’s wider government work.