After facing criticism from David Sacks, the venture capitalist serving as President Donald Trump’s AI and crypto czar, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei felt the need to defend the fast-growing AI company from accusations that it’s woke.
Major tech companies in America have to tread carefully these days because the White House is watching and can punish them. Anthropic, one of the startups at the center of the AI boom, has just learned that lesson.
It began when Jack Clark, one of Anthropic’s co-founders and its current head of policy, published an essay called “Technological Optimism and Appropriate Fear,” which sparked a debate over AI regulation.
In the essay, after lamenting the fact that “some people” are calling AI simply a machine, a tool that will help the economy, Clark opines: “Make no mistake: what we are dealing with is a real and mysterious creature, not a simple and predictable machine.”
The essay caught the attention of Sacks, Trump’s AI and crypto czar. On X, Sacks said that Anthropic has been pushing a “sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering.”
Anthropic is running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering. It is principally responsible for the state regulatory frenzy that is damaging the startup ecosystem. https://t.co/C5RuJbVi4P
undefined David Sacks (@DavidSacks) October 14, 2025
He then moved on to spar with billionaire tech investor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who defended Anthropic, calling the startup “one of the good guys.”
“The real issue is not research but rather Anthropic’s agenda to backdoor woke AI and other AI regulations through Blue states like California,” wrote Sacks, who, like most Trump allies in tech, opposes AI regulation altogether.
I read your post. It claims that the controversy surrounding Anthropic is about AI safety research. This is not true; in fact, it’s misdirection.
undefined David Sacks (@DavidSacks) October 20, 2025
The real issue is not research but rather Anthropic’s agenda to backdoor Woke AI and other AI regulations through Blue states like… https://t.co/DQw1oT2Ffk
Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives and already valued at $183 billion, indeed supported a bill in California requiring large AI developers to make their model safety protocols public.
However, as most AI companies have made clear their preference for federal AI legislation to avoid inconsistent, state-by-state regulations, Anthropic publicly opposed a bid by some Republicans in Congress to block states from regulating AI for ten years.
The startup’s CEO Amodei argued at the time that AI was advancing too fast for such a long freeze and suggested that the White House and Congress urgently create a federal transparency standard.
Now, after Sacks attacked Anthropic for alleged “wokeness,” Amodei again stepped in to intervene and state that the company is actively working with the US government to align its goals.
“Our longstanding position is that managing the societal impacts of AI should be a matter of policy over politics,” Amodei, who left OpenAI in 2020 precisely over his concerns about AI safety, wrote on Tuesday.
“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.”
AI is moving so fast that we can’t wait for Congress to act.
Dario Amodei
Amodei noted that Anthropic has partnered with agencies in several ways under the Trump administration, praised the White House’s AI Action Plan and joined a pledge to accelerate healthcare applications of AI.
To be sure, most MAGA Republicans hate everything around California, especially since the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is widely expected to run for President in 2028. They naturally loathe the fact that Anthropic supported Newsom’s push for an AI safety bill.
But Amodei has an explanation. In the statement, he reminded that California’s bill, SB 53, only applies to the very largest AI companies and sets a profit threshold that keeps it from stifling startups.
“AI is moving so fast that we can’t wait for Congress to act,” Amodei said.
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