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Anthropic’s Dario Amodei says the company has never called for banning open-weight AI models

July 28, 2026 Emily Chen Clock

Anthropic's Dario Amodei: Banning Open-Weight AI Models Is Not Our Goal

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Anthropic's Position on Open-Weight AI Models

Dario Amodei, Anthropic's CEO, clarifies his company's stance:

Anthropic has never advocated for a ban on open-weights models. Open-weights models that don’t have dangerous capabilities are a public good.

This statement addresses recent accusations and speculation regarding Anthropic's desire to ban open-weight AI models. Amodei proposes three alternative measures:

  1. Chip Export Controls: Enforce stricter controls on chip exports, addressing the "rampant smuggling" used to acquire advanced chips in China. Without US-made chips, China cannot train models as powerful as those developed with American technology.

  2. Crack Down on Distillation: Stop industrial-scale distillation operations which enable Chinese labs to build capable AI models at significantly lower cost.

  3. Mandatory Safety Testing: Implement mandatory safety testing for all sufficiently capable models, both open and closed source, regardless of origin. Startups and academic models with lesser capabilities would be exempt.

Amodei's Perspective on Open Weights:

While acknowledging the benefits of open weights in expanding access and competition, Amodei cautions that they might not always help defenders more than attackers. He cites biological weapons as a stark example: a powerful AI could weaponize a pandemic-level virus using readily available materials, while developing defenses against such agents takes considerable time.

Addressing Distillation Concerns:

Anthropic had previously been criticized for its silence on the Nvidia-backed open letter supporting open weights. Amodei explains that cracking down on distillation is challenging because accounts are often only identified after significant distillation has occurred. He advocates for policy intervention rather than relying on any single company's enforcement efforts.

The key distinction Anthropic makes is not against open weights, but against models built through:

  • Stealing from closed models
  • Using smuggled chips
  • Releasing models without safety testing.

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