Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is pushing back on the idea that AI leaders' warnings are the main reason the public has grown skeptical of artificial intelligence.

In posts cited by TechCrunch, Amodei said he agrees that "the public has a negative view of AI" and called that a serious problem. But he argued the backlash is "fundamentally a crisis of trust," rooted in ordinary people not trusting companies, governments, or the tech industry to act in their interest.

The comments came in response to criticism that repeated safety warnings from frontier labs have strengthened arguments for regulation and made AI feel more threatening than useful. Amodei said the better criticism of AI companies, including Anthropic, is that they have not yet delivered on their largest promises to benefit the world.

He also rejected the framing that AI policy must choose between broad distribution with little regulation and concentration of power through rules. In a companion post, Amodei said Anthropic tries to support proposals that slow frontier labs while exempting or advantaging smaller competitors.

That distinction matters because Anthropic has become one of the most visible companies arguing for frontier AI safeguards. Its CEO is now trying to separate two claims that are often blended together: that advanced AI could create serious risks, and that public distrust will be fixed by more optimistic marketing.

The conservative read is that Amodei is acknowledging a reputational gap, not announcing a policy shift. Anthropic still supports selected AI rules, but its CEO is saying the industry's first task is proving concrete public benefit.