Trump confirms dinner plans with Anthropic chief, rejects AI slowdown

US President Donald Trump confirmed plans to dine with Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei on Sunday, 27 September 2026, while repeating his opposition to slowing artificial intelligence development. Axios reported that the meeting was planned as a private White House dinner. [1] [3]

Speaking to Fox News during a golf tournament that day, Trump acknowledged concerns about AI but said maintaining a US technological advantage over China mattered more. He suggested the US might be about 18 months ahead of China and pointed to projects he said were worth trillions of dollars. [1]

In a September 2026 essay on his personal website, Amodei called for companies to slow improvements in the capabilities of advanced AI models — not to halt training or technical progress. His proposal includes giving outside evaluators ongoing access to leading developers and establishing common safety standards among AI companies in democratic countries. He says Anthropic is committing to the evaluator arrangement. [2]

The two men do not disagree on the importance of US competitiveness. Amodei argues that coordinated safety measures could preserve both developers’ commercial advantage and the American lead in AI. Trump had also made the case for staying ahead of China earlier in September. [2] [4]