Anthropic names global affairs chief to tackle AI policy as Trump tensions persist

• Anthropic has appointed Mariano-Florentino Cuellar as its first chief global affairs officer to manage AI policy and global government relations amid evolving regulations.
• Cuellar brings extensive government experience and aims to build consensus between Anthropic and the Trump administration, which has imposed restrictions on the company's AI technology.
• Anthropic faces challenges including a Pentagon blacklist and export controls on its advanced AI models, reflecting national security concerns and growing AI governance issues.

SAN FRANCISCO - Anthropic on Aug 4 named Mariano-Florentino Cuellar its first chief global affairs officer, as the developer of artificial intelligence models called Claude navigates vast policy challenges and changing regulation around its technology.

Cuellar will report to Anthropic president Daniela Amodei, a company spokesperson told Reuters.

His job, based in the startup’s San Francisco headquarters, will include managing relationships with the US government and the many countries where Anthropic is expanding globally.

Anthropic’s hire represents a choice for a consensus builder with wide-ranging government experience as well as AI expertise, the spokesperson said.

A special assistant in former Democratic president Barack Obama’s White House, Cuellar is tasked with finding common ground with US President Donald Trump’s Republican administration, which at points blacklisted and ordered controls around Anthropic’s AI this year.

Cuellar, who goes by Tino, has since January served on Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust that exists to make the startup deliver on its public benefit mission.

Cuellar is stepping down from that role to join the company, and the trust aims to find a successor to the independent four-person body.

His experience leading the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace until July included co-chairing a task force on US national security and nuclear proliferation. Some AI industry leaders have looked to nuclear arms controls as inspiration for managing the technology’s risks.

A 2025 study co-led by Cuellar also informed the passage of SB 53, a California law that protects AI whistleblowers, requires high-revenue developers to report on standards and incidents, and includes a maximum US$1 million (S$1.2 million) fine per violation.

Anthropic endorsed the Bill.

The company declined to make Cuellar available for an interview.

In a statement, the former California Supreme Court justice said policymakers were realising that AI’s development and governance had reached an “inflection point.”

“The choices we make today will determine whether humanity can harness extraordinary possibilities to advance science and improve lives across the world or face enormous risk and growing inequality,” Cuellar said.

Oren Cass, founder of the conservative think-tank American Compass, told Reuters that the pragmatic and progressive Cuellar would be “open-minded” to the Trump administration’s positions and eager to find the root of any disagreement.

“His approach will be one that provokes good deliberative policymaking with the administration,” said Cass, who called Cuellar a friend since they met several years ago and started convening bipartisan lunch discussions.

Cuellar takes up his Anthropic role at a time of growing concerns about AI-powered hacking and a turbulent relationship with the US government. A high-profile standoff over military red lines led the Pentagon to blacklist its technology earlier this year, a designation that Anthropic is challenging in court.

More recently, the Trump administration handed down an export control directive that temporarily banned Anthropic from selling its top-shelf Mythos 5 and Fable 5 AI models to foreigners over national security concerns. REUTERS