❯ Dario Amodei Publishes Long Post on Regulation Debate: Open Weights Won’t Decentralize Power, Backs Pre-Release Review

RESPONSEAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a lengthy post defending his policy positions, centered on rejecting the either/or framework of “regulation concentrating power vs open models dispersing it.” His assessment: open weights merely move concentration toward whoever holds the most compute and chips — namely frontier labs plus a handful of hardware vendors — and do not constitute a solution.

CONTEXTHe also voiced support for pre-release review — the Trump administration is reportedly close to finalizing a voluntary framework requiring AI companies to submit their most advanced models to government review before public release. Back in July, he explicitly said he does not support an outright ban on open-weight models, but worries about the proliferation of Chinese models. The long post closes out his public weekend dispute with investor Gavin Baker, which began precisely over whether regulation concentrates power or prevents its concentration.

TRUSTAmodei acknowledged the industry is in the midst of a trust crisis: the public worries that companies or governments are “cooking up new ways to screw them,” and trust can only be rebuilt by delivering tangible results. A company that both advocates tighter regulation and is itself a regulated entity will find it hard to prove its motives. Policymakers who need to choose sides between open weights and closed source currently lack precisely the evidence that isn’t supplied by the participants.

▪ SIGNALWhen advocating rules for your own lane, the hardest part is never arguing right versus wrong — it’s explaining why you have the standing to propose them.