Some congressional Democrats want to show artificial intelligence companies that they are a more reliable political partner than the Trump administration. They say President Donald Trump’s feud with AI giant Anthropic has presented them with an opportunity.
Last week, the Department of Defense banned the use of Anthropic’s AI tools after the company refused to give the administration unfettered access to its advanced AI software. The move sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley, where Big Tech companies that have cozied up to the Trump administration saw one of their own cut out of potentially billions of dollars in revenue overnight.
“Some of the tech people very naively said, ‘We like Trump because he said no tech regulation,’” Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia, said. “And then he turns around and says the opposite of light-touch regulation, ‘I’m just gonna take over your whole company.’ It’s crazy.”