Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday that the artificial intelligence company “cannot in good conscience comply” with the Pentagon’s request for unrestricted use of its technology, escalating an unusually public standoff with President Donald Trump’s administration that could see it lose government contracts as early as Friday.The company behind the AI chatbot Claude said it remained open to negotiations, but warned that amended contract language from the Pentagon “made virtually no progress in preventing Claude from being used for mass surveillance of Americans or fully autonomous weapons,” the Associated Press reported.Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell dismissed those concerns, writing on social media that the military “has no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of the American public (which is illegal), nor does it want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human interaction.”Anthropic’s internal policy prohibits such use. The company is currently the only major AI developer, along with companies such as Google, OpenAI, and Elon Musk’s xAI, that has not agreed to provide its technology to new military networks in the United States.“It is the department’s prerogative to select the contractor that best aligns with its vision,” Amodei said in a statement. “However, given the tremendous value that Anthropic’s technology brings to our nation’s military, we hope they will reconsider.”The dispute intensified on Tuesday when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, after speaking with Mr. Amodei, issued an ultimatum to allow unrestricted military use of Anthropic’s AI technology by Friday or risk losing the Pentagon contract. Officials also warned that the company could be designated as a supply chain risk or that the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era law, could be invoked to give the military broader authority over its products.Amodei criticized these threats as contradictory, saying, “The latter two threats are inherently contradictory. One classifies us as a security risk, and the other classifies Claude as essential to national security.”Parnell reiterated that the Pentagon aims to “use Anthropic models for any lawful purpose,” but did not specify what that use would involve. He argued that broader access to technology is needed to avoid “putting critical military operations at risk.”“We will not let any company dictate the terms of how business decisions are made,” he said.Negotiations between the two sides have been ongoing for several months. Amodei said that if the Pentagon does not revise its position, Anthropic will “work to enable a smooth transition to another provider.”The public nature of the controversy has drawn criticism on Capitol Hill.Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said the Pentagon had handled the issue unprofessionally and suggested that Anthropic was “trying to do its best to help us out of ourselves.”“Why on earth are we having this discussion in public?” Tillis told reporters. “This is not how you should deal with strategic vendors that you have contracts with.”He added: “When companies are resisting market opportunities out of fear of negative repercussions, we need to listen to them and find out what they are really trying to solve behind closed doors.”Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was “very disturbed” by reports that the Pentagon was “trying to bully a powerful nation in the United States.” company. ““Unfortunately, this is further evidence that the Department of Defense is willing to completely ignore AI governance,” Warner said. This “further highlights the need for Congress to enact strong and binding AI governance mechanisms from a national security perspective.”Pentagon officials insist that AI systems will be used in accordance with the law, even as the department seeks to reshape its internal legal culture.Hegseth told Fox News last February that the military wanted a lawyer who would provide constitutional advice but not become an “obstacle.” That same month, he fired the Army and Air Force’s legal leadership without explanation. The Navy’s top lawyer had resigned immediately after the 2024 election.
