Anthropic appoints a chief for global affairs to oversee AI diplomacy amid rising tensions with Trump.

      Anthropic has appointed Mariano-Florentino Cuellar as its inaugural chief global affairs officer to oversee government relations during a time of tension with the US government, including a Pentagon blacklist and export challenges. Cuellar, referred to as Tino, is a former California Supreme Court justice and most recently led the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace until July. He will report to Anthropic president Daniela Amodei and will be based at the company's headquarters in San Francisco.

      His responsibilities will involve cultivating relationships with the US government and the increasing number of countries where Anthropic is expanding. Cuellar has previously worked as a special assistant in Barack Obama’s administration, focusing on regulatory policy and public safety. He co-chaired a bipartisan task force at Carnegie that addressed nuclear proliferation and US national security, both areas some AI leaders reference as frameworks for managing the risks associated with the technology.

      A study from 2025, which Cuellar co-led, contributed to the enactment of California’s SB 53, the first law in the US specifically targeting AI safety. Anthropic supported the legislation, which offers protections for AI whistleblowers, mandates high-revenue developers to report on safety standards and incidents, and imposes a maximum fine of one million dollars for violations.

      Cuellar has been part of Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust since January, which is designed to ensure the company adheres to its public benefit mission. He will resign from his position on the trust to take on this new role, with the trust now seeking a replacement for the group that previously had four members.

      This appointment follows a challenging year for Anthropic regarding government relations. The Pentagon added the company to a supply-chain risk list in March after it declined to allow its Claude models to be used for autonomous weaponry or mass surveillance of US citizens. Anthropic subsequently filed a lawsuit against the government regarding the blacklisting, which is still ongoing.

      Recently, the Trump administration imposed export restrictions on Anthropic’s advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, due to national security concerns. Although the ban was lifted after about three weeks following Anthropic’s agreement to various security commitments, the incident highlighted the company's precarious standing in Washington.

      Oren Cass, founder of the conservative think tank American Compass and a friend of Cuellar, remarked to Reuters that the new hire would approach the Trump administration's views with an “open mind” and be keen to identify the sources of any differences. Cuellar expressed in a statement that he believes policymakers are at an “inflection point” regarding AI governance, asserting that current decisions will shape whether humanity can leverage the technology's vast potential or confront significant risks.