So, remember when the U.S. government basically gave Anthropic the cold shoulder? Well, grab a cup of coffee, because the thermostat might be getting adjusted. The artificial intelligence company is moving closer to restoring ties with the U.S. Department of Defense after President Donald Trump said the firm was improving its standing with his administration. That raises the very real prospect that the Pentagon could revisit its ban.
This all follows a White House meeting between Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and administration officials to chat about collaboration and, importantly, guardrails for advanced AI systems. According to Anthropic, the discussion zeroed in on how the two "can work together on key shared priorities such as cybersecurity, America's lead in the AI race and AI safety."
The real signal came from the top. Trump told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that he believed the company was "shaping up" and suggested an agreement with the Pentagon could be possible. "It's possible. We want the smartest people," he added. That's a notable shift in tone from earlier this year.
Here's the backstory: In February, Trump directed a halt to federal work with Anthropic. The Pentagon then labeled the company a supply-chain risk, a move that came after a clash over limits on military uses of its AI systems. Anthropic, for its part, has pushed back hard on that assessment. So hard, in fact, that it sued the Defense Department in March over the designation.
While this legal and bureaucratic dance plays out, Anthropic has another card on the table: its new AI model, Mythos. The company has billed it as its "most advanced model," and experts say it could be used to spot software security flaws and even map out ways to exploit them. It's not for general release, though. Instead, it's being tested through something called Project Glasswing with a select group of partners that reads like a who's who of tech and finance: JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT), among others.
Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark said last week the company was in discussions with the Trump administration about Mythos, though he didn't spill the beans on any details. So, the plot thickens. A company once frozen out is now getting a warmer reception, all while it's developing powerful new tech and suing the very department it hopes to work with again. It's a complicated relationship, to say the least.
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