The company raced to send senior leaders with research and safeguard expertise to D.C. after multiple hourslong calls among Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross over the weekend, said the officials, who like others quoted in this story were granted anonymity to describe the discussions. Anthropic head of public policy Sarah Heck was also present on those calls.

Monday’s in-person meetings, held by Commerce and Cairncross’ office, were more technical and were led by staff, including Chris Fall, who heads Commerce’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation, the person familiar with the discussions said.

Anthropic gave a presentation to administration officials, explaining Anthropic’s cybersecurity safeguards in hopes of moving past the restrictions, the administration official said.