A memo written by a Trump political adviser outside the White House circulated among White House officials in the week of 21 September, attacking effective altruism and linking Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei to the movement, International Business Times reported on 24 September. The account, published before 25 September 2026, describes a political adviser’s document, rather than a White House directive.
Key points
- The memo says effective altruism “built the AI-doom pipeline” and names Dario and Daniela Amodei as figures associated with it.
- The adviser who wrote the memo does not work for the White House.
- Trump allies are portraying Dario Amodei as the face of AI “doomerism” as Anthropic prepares for an expected record-setting IPO.
The adviser’s case against effective altruism
The memo argues that effective altruism “built the AI-doom pipeline” and identifies Dario Amodei and his sister, Anthropic president Daniela Amodei, as people associated with the movement. It accuses the movement of placing “foreigners over citizens, shrimp over families” and of favouring hypothetical future people over people alive now. Those are the adviser’s characterisations, as reported by International Business Times, rather than stated positions of either Amodei.
Effective altruism promotes the use of evidence and resources to maximise social good. The memo’s criticism extends to its concern with animal welfare and future generations, as well as the possibility that highly advanced AI might merit moral consideration. It groups those subjects with warnings about risks from AI systems, giving Trump’s allies a way to attack a set of ideas alongside a company executive.
Trump has described fears of an AI takeover as a “hoax”, International Business Times reported. Amodei, by contrast, has repeatedly warned that increasingly autonomous systems could pose severe risks without adequate safeguards. The disagreement concerns how the United States should respond to more capable AI, but the memo presses a narrower political case: it ties those warnings to a movement it seeks to discredit.
The Amodeis and Anthropic’s early backers
The association is contested by the people the memo names. Daniela Amodei told WIRED in 2025 that she did not identify with effective altruism terminology. In interviews, Dario Amodei has said he does not regard himself as belonging to effective altruism. Anthropic researcher Amanda Askell has said she had encountered effective altruists at the company, while rejecting the idea that their philosophy defined the organisation.
There are connections in Anthropic’s history. People associated with effective altruism provided substantial early funding to the company, including Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried’s stake was subsequently sold. Daniela Amodei’s husband, Holden Karnofsky, co-founded a philanthropy closely associated with the movement before joining Anthropic in 2025.
That history gives the adviser identifiable people and financial ties to cite. It also places distinct questions beside one another: who funded Anthropic, which ideas individual employees hold, and what the company does when it develops AI systems. The Amodeis’ statements about their own affiliation concern one of those questions. The memo links the Amodeis and Anthropic to effective altruism and criticises the movement’s priorities.
Trump allies make Amodei a political target
Trump’s allies are presenting Dario Amodei as the face of AI “doomerism” and as a founding figure of effective altruism, Axios reported on 24 September. Sources told Axios that Trump surrogates regard his politics and attention to AI safety as reasons he is an easy political foil. Their campaign targets the standing of a particular executive, as well as the arguments he makes about AI risk.
Warnings about powerful AI extend beyond Anthropic. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk have also urged caution, according to International Business Times. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has taken a different public position on one such risk: in a CBS News interview, he said there was zero chance of AI extinction by 2030. The political attack on Amodei is therefore taking place within a wider industry disagreement over the scale and timing of AI risks.
Axios reported that the attacks could keep Anthropic in Trump’s sights as his allies push back on Amodei’s safety warnings during the midterm elections. Investors face that prospect while Anthropic prepares for an initial public offering expected to set a record, the publication reported.
