Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says he does not support open-weight AI ban
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Add Axios on Google Dario Amodei. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Monday that he has "never advocated" for a ban on open-weight AI models , rejecting accusations that his lab is seeking to shield its closed-model business from competition.
Why it matters: Anthropic has become the most prominent holdout from a new industry push to defend open-weight AI, after Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Google, OpenAI and dozens of other companies signed a letter urging Washington not to restrict the technology.
Driving the news: "Anthropic has never advocated for a ban on open-weights models," Amodei wrote in a new blog post , calling models without dangerous capabilities "a public good."
Between the lines: Amodei is trying to draw a narrow line between opposing open-weight bans and supporting tougher controls on the most powerful AI systems.
Zoom in: Instead of a ban, which he said "would not address my most serious national security concerns," Amodei called for three narrower policies:
Catch up quick: Anthropic faced criticism after it declined to join Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's open-weight letter.
The bottom line: Amodei doesn't want Washington to ban open models. He wants Washington to regulate the chokepoints — chips, distillation and safety testing — that determine how powerful those models can become.
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