The showdown between the Pentagon and Anthropic over the use of its AI solutions in US military for “all lawful purposes” which reportedly include mass surveillance of American citizens and fully autonomous weapons shows no signs of cooling down. According to a report by news agency Reuters, in a tense meeting on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a strict ultimatum to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei: drop the company’s strict AI safety rules by Friday (February 27), or face severe government retaliation.Citing sources, Reuters said that Anthropic has no intention of backing down on its usage restrictions as the AI startup has refused to remove safeguards that would prevent its technology from being used to target weapons autonomously and conduct domestic surveillance.
What Pentagon head Pete Hegseth told Anthropic CEO
Reportedly, the Pentagon argues that AI companies working with the military should only be required to follow standard US law, rather than imposing their own corporate ethical guidelines. Hegseth has given Amodei until 5:00 p.m. on Friday to comply. If Anthropic refuses, the government is threatening two massive actions.The first is invoking the Defense Production Act – a Cold War-era law to legally force Anthropic to change its rules and provide unrestricted technology. The second is the “Supply-Chain Risk” Label on Anthropic. This label is normally reserved for foreign adversaries and would effectively destroy Anthropic’s ability to do business with any other company tied to the US government.
What caused tensions between Anthropic and the Pentagon
Tensions between the two sides ‘exploded’ earlier this month over an international military operation, reports said. The Pentagon believed Anthropic was asking questions about whether its AI was used during a US military raid in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro.During the meeting, Amodei reportedly pushed back, telling Hegseth that Anthropic never questioned the Pentagon or its contractor, Palantir, about the raid, the report said.Meanwhile, the Pentagon is said to be negotiating with other major tech players like Elon Musk’s xAI Google and OpenAI. Axios reported that xAI and the Pentagon have agreed to the technology for “all lawful purposes”. “This specific scenario is unprecedented. It will almost certainly trigger a raft of downstream litigation if the Administration takes adverse action against Anthropic here,” warned Franklin Turner, a government contracts lawyer, as per Reuters.
