Anthropic's Dario Amodei clarifies stance on open-weight models amid AI civil war
27 Sources
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Anthropic's Dario Amodei responds: doesn't oppose open-weight models, but fears Chinese AI
Anthropic founder and CEO Dario Amodei responded on Monday afternoon to murmuring in the industry that his company somehow supports efforts by the U.S. government to ban open-weight Chinese models, or possibly open-weight models generally. "Anyone who has read my past writing should know that I
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Banning Open-Source AI Models to Protect Our Cybersecurity May Do the Opposite - CNET
Katelyn is a reporter with CNET covering artificial intelligence, including chatbots, image and video generators.... Read full bio In an escalating effort to give the federal government power over the AI industry, some members of the Trump administration have reportedly tried to implement a "de
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Open weights vs. closed: An AI civil war's afoot, and the stakes are existential
Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways * The conflict between open and closed large language models is on. * Open weights and open source are not the same, but open weights are the future. * On the proprietary side are Anthropic and OpenAI; on the other,
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Dario Amodei weighed in on Anthropic's open-weight model controversy.
The company had been igniting widespread criticism as seemingly the only leading AI lab not supporting open-weight models. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently published a public letter in support of them, signed by Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta, Palantir, Hugging Face, and others -- and in the days since,
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Why Didn't Anthropic Sign the Open Model Letter? AI Offense Outpaces Defense
An open letter urging the US to support rather than restrict open-weight AI models has received public support from all the major tech companies -- except Anthropic. CEO Dario Amodei is now explaining why, suggesting that open AI models could empower attackers more than defenders. Amodei says he
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Jensen puts his thumb on the scales against open-weights fearmongering
Nvidia has made a fortune on the AI boom. But the flames of opposition to open-weights models -- that is models that anyone can download, modify, and run on their own infrastructure -- could change that, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang isn't waiting to find out. On Friday, a cadre of tech titans wrote
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Anthropic rejects open-weight AI bans, calls for China chip controls and safety tests
The statement follows criticism over Anthropic's absence from an industry letter opposing open-weight AI limits. Anthropic CEO outlined his support for lower-risk models alongside tighter controls on more powerful systems. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has argued that policymakers should keep
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Hugging Face CEO says China is winning the AI race and dominating on open models
Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue said China is winning the artificial intelligence race with open-source models and could catch up to U.S. model makers as soon as this year. "They're clearly dominating on open models right now, and I wouldn't be surprised if they start dominating at the frontier
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As China's A.I. Gets Stronger, It Poses New Risks to Beijing
China has cast itself as a champion of low-cost, open-source artificial intelligence technology that it says should be made widely available to the world. It has accused the United States of "A.I. hegemonism" as the Trump administration has debated regulating Chinese open-source A.I.
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Dario Amodei Says He's Not Against Open Models, He's Against Selling Chips to China
The American AI industry is split over open models. Those in the industry who say they are all for open AI development have started blaming frontier AI model providers, especially Anthropic, for pushing the Trump administration towards adopting a stricter stance favoring closed models. Now,
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Anthropic's Dario Amodei says the company has never called for banning open-weight AI models
Amodei says Anthropic has never called for banning open-weights models. He supports chip export controls, cracking down on distillation, and mandatory safety testing for all sufficiently capable models, open and closed. Dario Amodei published Anthropic's formal position on open-weights models on
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China's open-weight model lead exposes America's AI blind spot
Some of America's biggest technology companies are pushing Washington to make open artificial intelligence a national priority as China continues to build its lead in the space. Their message exposes a gap in U.S. policy: America has a chip strategy for AI. Now it needs an open-model
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Chinese GLM-5.2 steals the spotlight after Hugging Face breach
* Chinese Zhipu AI GLM-5.2 succeeded where leading American models failed woefully * Hugging Face breach reignited Washington's battle over open-weight artificial intelligence * Safety guardrails unexpectedly complicated defensive cybersecurity work during a real incident The recent
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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says he does not support open-weight AI ban
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. * The push was triggered by the shock
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Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue says China is winning AI race
Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue said Monday that China is dominating open-weight AI models and could overtake U.S. frontier labs before the end of the year. "They're clearly dominating on open models right now, and I wouldn't be surprised if they start dominating at the frontier either by the
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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says AI company isn't advocating for ban of open-weight models
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said on Monday that his company has "never advocated for a ban on open-weights models," an attempt to beat back criticism emerging across the tech industry that the AI lab is trying to exert excessive control over the future of artificial intelligence. Amodei published
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Anthropic and Nvidia come out against blanket bans on open-weight AI models
As the United States government debates new artificial intelligence rules and regulations, Anthropic PBC and Nvidia Corp. are drawing a line against blanket bans on open-weight models, urging regulators to focus instead on specific risks and misuse. An open-weight model is one where the developer
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Anthropic breaks from AI rivals in open-weight model debate
The Anthropic CEO has hit back at claims his company wants Chinese open-weight models banned, days after sitting out a rival industry letter. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has moved to quash what he called a specific accusation circulating in AI circles this week, that his company wants Chinese
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Dario Amodei rejects open-weight AI ban, wants safety testing
Dario Amodei said Anthropic has never sought to ban open-weight models, but wants all capable AI systems tested before release Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei pushed back Monday against accusations that his company has sought to restrict open-weight artificial intelligence models, while laying out a
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Silicon Valley splits over closing the borders to Chinese AI
SAN FRANCISCO -- For years, a philosophical divide over how artificial intelligence software should be created has split Silicon Valley technologists. Over a week in July, that argument reached a boiling point. On one side are leading AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, which claim that AI
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Anthropic gives thoughts on open-weights models, especially those from China
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has publicly clarified the company's stance on open-weights models, rejecting calls for a broad ban while warning of two major nightmare scenarios. In a recent post shared to the Anthropic website, Amodei emphasized that open models are a public good when not dangerous,
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Rogue AI hacking incidents amplify debate over open-source tech
Concerns over AI's cybersecurity risks reached a fever pitch this week following two hacking incidents at OpenAI and Anthropic, sparking further debate in Silicon Valley over whether open-source could reduce these threats. The incidents are amplifying the recent push for open-source technology,
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What are open weight AI models and why are they dividing Big Tech?
AI models learn by adjusting billions of numerical parameters during training. These parameters, called weights, help the model understand a prompt and decide what response to give. A cyberattack incident last week brought a technical AI term into the middle of a much bigger debate over who should
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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Says He 'Never Advocated' Open-Weight AI Ban, Calls for Tougher Curbs on China
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said he has "never advocated" banning open-weight AI models, pushing back against claims that the company wants to protect its closed-model business from open-source competition. Amodei, in a blog post on Monday, said AI models without dangerous capabilities are "a
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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says company never backed open-weight AI ban
Amodei addressed the issue in a blog post on Monday, just days after Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Palantir and several other technology companies signed a letter urging US policymakers not to introduce "premature restrictions" on open-weight AI models (these are models that users can download, modify
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Anthropic Never Advocated Ban on Open-weight AI Models: Dario Amodei
But China is different, says the man who was among the first to call out data distillation by Chinese AI labs. He claimed that it was authoritarian governments that made him concerned Now that OpenAI and Anthropic have landed on the same page with respect to slowing down the pace of AI
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After Jensen Huang's open AI push, Anthropic CEO clarifies company's stance
modei also raised concerns about advanced AI being used to create biological threats. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has responded after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang backed open-weight AI models through a public campaign supported by several major tech companies. The discussion started after Huang shared
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Dario Amodei has clarified that Anthropic never advocated for banning open-weight models, despite not signing an industry letter supporting them. While nearly 80 tech companies backed open AI model accessibility, Anthropic's CEO expressed concerns about AI safety risks, particularly from authoritarian governments and biological attacks. His stance highlights the growing divide in how the industry approaches US-China tech competition and model distillation practices.
Anthropic Breaks Silence on Open-Weight Models Controversy
Dario Amodei, founder and CEO of Anthropic, has ended days of speculation by publicly clarifying his company's position on open-weight models. In a blog post published Monday, Amodei emphasized that "Anthropic has never advocated for a ban on open-weights models," addressing widespread criticism after his company conspicuously avoided signing an industry letter supporting open AI model accessibility
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. The letter, initially backed by 25 companies including Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta, and Hugging Face, has since grown to 77 signatories, adding OpenAI, Google, Amazon, SpaceX, and others4
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. Anthropic's absence from this list had positioned it as seemingly the only leading AI lab not supporting open-weight models, fueling an AI civil war over how the industry should balance innovation with national security.
Source: CXOToday
The Divide Between Open and Closed AI Models
The debate intensified following the July release of Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 model, which matched and sometimes exceeded capabilities of American-made models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google
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. Unlike its US counterparts, Kimi K3 was released as an open-weight model, sending shockwaves through Wall Street and prompting discussions about Chinese AI capabilities. Michael Kratsios, Trump's director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, claimed that "Moonshot AI distilled Anthropic's Fable for the development of its K3," suggesting intellectual property theft through model distillation3
. This technique involves an AI bombarding another model with prompts to learn how it works1
.Amodei acknowledged that "open-weights models that don't have dangerous capabilities are a public good" and noted they "expand access to the AI economy" and "strengthen competition"
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. Nearly 80% of developers use open models, according to a recent Mozilla report, with Linda Griffin, vice president of global policy at Mozilla, stating that "open-weight models are everywhere in the industry already"2
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Source: The Hill
AI Safety Concerns Override Cybersecurity Arguments
While Amodei supports open-weight models in principle, he takes issue with claims that they necessarily improve cybersecurity defenses. The industry letter argued that "open models broaden defensive capability, increase transparency, and allow vulnerabilities to be discovered and remediated across many teams"
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. Amodei countered: "I don't agree with the letter's assertions that open-weights models necessarily make it easier to develop safeguards or that broad access to capabilities necessarily helps defenders more than attackers"5
.His primary concern centers on geopolitical risks from authoritarian governments building more powerful models than those in the US to achieve "permanent military superiority" or "perpetrate incredibly deep repression of their own people"
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. While he clarified the Chinese Communist Party isn't his only concern, he identified it as the "most capable" authoritarian government1
.Amodei also fears AI-enabled biological attacks, citing that "defense against these agents is a multi-year operational task in the best case," referencing the lengthy COVID-19 vaccine development and rollout
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. He argues that open-weight models present higher risks because "it is very difficult to apply guardrails to them or monitor their usage," and citing a UK AI Security Institute report, noted that "once weights are released, they cannot be withdrawn"1
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.Related Stories
Proposed Measures to Address US-China Tech Competition
Rather than supporting bans on open-source AI models, Amodei outlined specific actions to address national security threats. He called for continued restrictions on Chinese access to advanced GPUs, describing this as "the most efficient and direct way" to block threats
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. He also urged a formal crackdown on "industrial" model distillation used to copy US leading-edge models1
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.Interestingly, Amodei supports mandatory safety testing for all AI models, whether open or closed. He expressed optimism that "the Trump administration has moved in this direction in recent months" and suggested such testing could be global, potentially including China
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. "Limited cooperation around preventing AI biological weapons may be possible because it is in China's interest too," he wrote1
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Source: NYT
Ayham Boucher, executive director of AI strategy and innovation at Cornell, warned that "regulators can't have it both ways. You can't restrict access to frontier models and ban open-source models, leaving enterprises and institutions defenseless"
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. This tension reflects the broader challenge facing policymakers as they navigate competing priorities of innovation, security, and economic competitiveness in an increasingly fractured AI landscape.References
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