On a Monday night NBC News segment, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei expressed concern over some of the things seen in the last few days, referring to violence involving Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. Amodei focused on the importance of preserving democracy at home, both on television and in a social media post that specifically called out the horror seen in Minnesota. On television, he said he is a believer in arming democracies to defend against autocratic countries, and that we need to defend our own democratic values at home. He added that Anthropic has no contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Meanwhile, in an internal message to OpenAI employees that was leaked to the New York Times, Sam Altman said what is happening with ICE is going too far. He wrote that part of loving the country is the American duty to push back against overreach. Altman stated there is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and what is happening now, and that we need to get the distinction right.
Tech workers, including employees of both companies, have been calling on their chiefs to call the White House and demand that ICE leave U.S. cities in the aftermath of Border Patrol agents killing two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. In an open letter, tech workers also urged their CEOs to cancel all company contracts with ICE and speak out publicly against ICE’s violence. Employees calling for CEOs to take action are encouraged and want more to join the ranks.
Organizers of the effort, whose identities remain unknown, said they are glad to hear the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic condemning the ICE murders. They stated that now we need to hear from CEOs of Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta, all of whom have remained silent despite calls all across the industry.
While Amodei and Altman may be taking something of a stand, both CEOs couched their statements with praise for President Trump as well. Amodei applauded Trump’s consideration to allow Minnesota authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the shootings by federal agents after multiple videos of one victim’s death circulated online. It remains to be seen if that investigation will happen, but a growing number of Republicans have begun to call for an investigation.
In Altman’s message to his staff he also said he was encouraged by Trump’s more recent responses and said he hopes the president, whom he called a very strong leader, will rise to this moment and unite the country. Altman assured them that OpenAI would try to figure out how to actually do the right thing as best it can, engage with leaders and push for its values, and speak up clearly about it as needed. Altman has yet to publicly criticize the administration’s immigration agenda, or how it is deploying Border Patrol agents into American cities.
J.J. Colao, founder of a public relations firm and one of the signatories on the open letter, called Altman out for trying to have it both ways by calling Trump a strong leader, as if the president bears no responsibility for ICE’s actions. He added that on net, he thinks Altman’s statement is helpful, but the performative tribute to the president does a lot to diminish it.
Of course, the Trump administration’s current AI-forward policies have helped fuel explosive growth at companies like OpenAI and Anthropic over the past year. OpenAI raised at least forty billion dollars and is in talks to raise another one hundred billion at an eight hundred thirty billion valuation. Anthropic has raised nineteen billion dollars and is in talks to raise another twenty-five billion at a three hundred fifty billion valuation.
Still, such words of praise for Trump is an about face for Altman. In the lead up to Trump’s first term, Altman posted to his own blog that Trump is not merely irresponsible, but irresponsible in the way dictators are. He wrote that to anyone familiar with the history of Germany in the 1930s, it is chilling to watch Trump in action. At that time, he called Trump a demagogic hate-monger who dangles the lie that he will make America great by keeping us safe from outsiders to distract from the fact that he actually has no serious plan for how to restore economic growth. Altman acknowledged that he took some risk by writing his post, and ended on a quote that has been attributed to Edmund Burke about good men doing nothing allowing evil to triumph. He wrote that this would be a good time for us all to start speaking up.
And Amodei also appeared to be more passionate about his opposition to Trump allowing Nvidia to sell AI chips to China, calling the decision crazy last week during the World Economic Forum and likening it to selling nuclear weapons to North Korea.
Whether these CEOs are doing everything that some among their workforce want them to do remains to be seen. Still, given what is at stake for their companies, even internal and mild-mannered critiques are notable.