Anthropic: Alone in AI Policy Fights, Yet Still Winning
Anthropic spent the winter as the darling of America’s AI boom. By summer, it found itself isolated in nearly every policy debate: alone on open weights, blacklisted by the Pentagon, and an awkward advocate for distillation. Surprisingly, despite its isolation, Anthropic remains the most valuable startup in the world.
A Isolated Position
Six months ago, Anthropic led the AI models race and was at the forefront of ethics discussions. This summer, however, it stands alone in several significant AI policy fights:
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Open Weights: Anthropic declined to sign an open letter urging Washington not to restrict open-weight models, unlike its rivals Google and OpenAI. It argues for tighter controls on certain dangerous ingredients like advanced chips falling into authoritarian hands.
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Pentagon Blacklist: In February, the Pentagon blacklisted Anthropic over concerns about Claude’s potential use in surveillance or autonomous weapons. A defense official described Anthropic as “the most hostile AI company to the warfighter.”
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Distillation: Anthropic has accused Chinese labs of training cheaper models on its outputs through "industrial-scale" distillation campaigns, according to The New York Times. Critics argue this is a standard part of AI development.
Despite Isolation, They’re Still Winning
Despite the friction and isolation, Anthropic isn’t losing ground. Its models continue to outperform most independent benchmarks, and businesses still pay premium prices for its services. In May, it achieved a $965 billion valuation, surpassing OpenAI, and is poised for an IPO that could value it even higher.
While not signing the open letter or agreeing with all security restrictions, Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei acknowledged the importance of weaker models as "a public good." The company also joined a petition from over 1,100 AI industry employees urging Washington to pace the development of frontier AI. This shows that, although isolated, Anthropic’s voice is still heard and its concerns are shared by others in the industry.