Washington has a new Anthropic problem

Anthropic is both a risk and a necessity to AI progress, at least in the White House's telling. That tension is shaping AI policy in real time, as the White House realizes it needs the company it's been fighting. The White House is inching toward welcoming Anthropic back into the government fold after months of animosity and legal battles with the Pentagon because its most advanced models are too powerful to ignore. The Trump administration's goal on AI has been to be as hands-off and pro-innovation as possible. But as models get more powerful, that stance is breaking down. Washington is stepping in, shaping policy around who gets access to the most advanced systems and how they're deployed, driven by growing urgency over what the technology can do.