President Donald Trump remarked that he likes Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei following a recent dinner, signaling a potential softening in the relationship between the White House and the artificial intelligence company that the Department of Defense has flagged as a supply chain risk.

In an interview with Time magazine published on Thursday, Trump said: "I like him and his wife very much. He is extremely smart, perhaps a bit different from what I originally thought, really just a bit different. But he gets it." The two had dinner last Sunday, marking the first private one-on-one meeting between Amodei and Trump. On Tuesday, they also jointly attended a larger gathering with leaders from several major U.S. tech and AI companies to discuss growing concerns about AI.

Amodei and others have warned that AI could pose an existential threat to humanity and have called for slowing development or establishing stricter safety guardrails. However, Trump has previously expressed opposition to new regulatory restrictions. Recent arrangements pushed by the White House also emphasize addressing AI risks through corporate self-regulation and external audits.

Recalling his meeting with Amodei, Trump said: "If you seek regulation, they might shut you down. But my stance is that we are far ahead of the world right now, and I want to stay ahead."

AI is becoming a contentious issue in the November midterm elections, with voters worried about AI taking jobs and power-hungry data centers potentially impacting the environment and energy prices. But Trump actively embraces the technology and has taken steps to support AI infrastructure development.

When asked if he could persuade the American public to support his position, Trump said he was not sure. He said: "I might not be able to. I don't know."

Trump said: "I won't kill something just because of alarmist threats. They used to say global warming would burn our country down."

Trump also expressed interest in having the U.S. government hold stakes in labs developing advanced AI models in some form, comparing such an arrangement to a deal he made with Intel. When asked if he would be willing to make similar arrangements with OpenAI or Anthropic, he said: "Maybe I could do that. I have many similar deals, and I would do it."

It remains unclear whether such investments would actually materialize or whether the companies involved have any intention of offering shares to the government. Trump was also asked whether he trusts OpenAI CEO Altman, who did not attend Tuesday's lunch. Trump replied: "I like him. As for trusting him? Who do I trust? I like Altman. He is smart. Dario is smart too. They are all smart. We are dealing with a group of very, very high-IQ people. That's a good thing. I like that."