Pentagon pressures Anthropic in escalating AI showdown | EUROtoday

The US authorities says it would pull AI startup Anthropic from Pentagon provide chains and rip up any agreements it has with it because the row between the 2 escalates sharply.

US Under Secretary of Defense Emil Michael strongly rebuked Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Thursday, calling him a “liar” with a “God-complex.” He mentioned Amodei “wants nothing more than to try to personally control the US military and is ok putting our nation’s safety at risk.”

The row follows a gathering earlier this week between Amodei and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the place — based on sources acquainted with the assembly — Hegseth instructed Anthropic it had till Friday (February 27) to provide the US army full entry to its Claude mannequin.

If entry just isn’t given, Hegseth threatened to chop AI group Anthropic from authorities provide chains, or probably compel it to prioritize authorities orders, based on the sources.

Anthropic has up to now refused to provide Washington full entry to its fashions for categorised army use, together with for doubtlessly deadly missions carried out with out human management and for home mass surveillance.

In an announcement on Thursday, Amodei mentioned, “Anthropic understands that the Department of War, not private companies, makes military decisions. We have never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner. However, in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values.”

While Anthropic’s Claude mannequin is at present utilized by the Pentagon, Amodei says he believes the corporate’s purple traces of mass surveillance and absolutely autonomous weapons “need to be deployed with proper guardrails, which don’t exist today.”

It’s the newest instance of Washington’s strong-arm techniques within the company sector, whereas it additionally exhibits how management over AI fashions is turning into a brand new battleground for the Trump administration. It can be prone to immediate a authorized battle between the federal government and Anthropic.

What precisely has Hegseth threatened and why?

Hegseth known as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to Washington for a gathering on Tuesday. An Anthropic spokesperson confirmed the assembly passed off and instructed DW:

“We continued good-faith conversations about our usage policy to ensure Anthropic can continue to support the government’s national security mission in line with what our models can reliably and responsibly do.”

However, sources acquainted with the talks mentioned Hegseth made two direct threats to Amodei if Anthropic didn’t comply.

One was to chop the corporate out of the Pentagon’s provide chain, whereas the opposite can be to invoke the Defense Production Acta measure from the Cold War period, which supplies the US president the facility to regulate home trade within the supposed curiosity of nationwide protection.

Hegseth desires the Pentagon to have unrestricted entry to Anthropic’s generative AI chatbot Claude, however Anthropic, which has lengthy billed itself as a safety-oriented AI firm, has been persistently opposed.

The firm is firmly in opposition to its Claude expertise being utilized in operations the place closing army focusing on selections are taken with out human intervention, or for mass surveillance inside the United States.

“To our knowledge, these two exceptions have not been a barrier to accelerating the adoption and use of our models within our armed forces to date,” Amodei mentioned within the assertion of February 26.

“Anthropic views these things as being not in humanity’s long-term best interest, at least at the current level of technology and safety guardrails that exist, whereas the Pentagon is pushing to have any lawful use that it wants,” Geoffrey Gertz, senior fellow on the Center for a New American Security, instructed DW.

He says speak of invoking the Defense Production Act can be an try and exert management over an AI firm in an “unprecedented” approach, and he’s involved that it might thwart Anthropic’s growth.

“There’s a big worry that the government ends up taking actions that hurt Anthropic’s ability to continue to be at the forefront of responsible AI,” he mentioned. “Actions that are trying to curtail Anthropic’s potential markets, I think, could be very harmful and really backfire on what the administration is trying to do on AI policy.”

What has been the connection between Anthropic and the US army?

Since November 2024, Anthropic has been offering the Claude mannequin to US intelligence and protection companies.

According to the Wall Street Journalthe US army used Claude throughout the 2026 raid on Venezuela which resulted within the seize of Nicolas Maduro. Neither Anthropic nor the US protection division commented on the claims, and it isn’t clear exactly how the AI system was used within the raid.

The menace by Hegseth to take away Anthropic from Pentagon provide chains would have a monetary affect on the corporate.

In July 2025, the US Department of Defense awarded Anthropic a $200 million contract to “prototype frontier AI capabilities that advance US national security.”

Anthropic hailed the association, with Thiyagu Ramasamy, the corporate’s head of public sector, saying it opened “a new chapter in Anthropic’s commitment to supporting US national security.”

However, on the time, it additionally emphasised its dedication to “responsible AI deployment.”

“At the heart of this work lies our conviction that the most powerful technologies carry the greatest responsibility,” it mentioned in an announcement. “We’re building AI systems to be reliable, interpretable, and steerable precisely because we recognize that in government contexts, where decisions affect millions and stakes couldn’t be higher, these qualities are essential.”

Is Anthropic as safety-oriented because it says?

Anthropic was based in 2021 by seven former workers of OpenAI. According to CEO Dario Amodei, it was constructed “on a simple principle: AI should be a force for human progress, not peril.”

However, regardless of the row with the Pentagon, there are indicators that Anthropic is reconsidering that dedication in pursuit of economic ambitions.

On Tuesday (February 24), the identical day because the Hegseth assembly, the corporate introduced it was softening its core security coverage to stay aggressive with different main AI fashions.

“The policy environment has shifted toward prioritizing AI competitiveness and economic growth, while safety-oriented discussions have yet to gain meaningful traction at the federal level,” Anthropic mentioned in a weblog publish saying the modifications.

Anthropic faces intense competitors from AI rivals similar to OpenAI and Google and is making the coverage pivot on account of what it sees as an absence of AI regulation on the federal degree. The Trump administration has resisted AI regulation at each the state and federal ranges.

The spokesperson for Anthropic instructed DW that the coverage shift was unrelated to the Pentagon negotiations.

What moral questions are at stake?

If Anthropic submits to Hegseth’s calls for, or if the protection division have been to take management of Anthropic by invoking the Defense Production Act, it might inevitably result in accusations that the corporate’s AI was not getting used with a safety-first mindset.

The concern additionally shines a lightweight on the Trump administration’s sturdy willingness to straight intervene in company decision-making and in sectors it deems of important significance.

In August 2025, the Trump administration introduced it had made a $8.9 billion funding in Intel, a part of a collection of strikes to straight intervene in US chipmaking.

It has additionally intervened straight within the rare-earth sector, making main investments in companies similar to Vulcan Elements, MP Materials and USA Rare Earth.

Gertz says that companies and CEOs are “navigating a new landscape” in relation to the Trump administration’s extra interventionist coverage.

“This is an outlier,” he mentioned. “This is a big shift from a traditional US approach of more hands-off, let the private sector develop.”

Edited by: Ashutosh Pandey

Editor’s word: The article, initially printed on February 25, has been up to date to replicate the escalation of the dispute between Anthropic and the Trump administration, with an announcement from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and a remark by US Under Secretary of Defense Emil Michael.