Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth gives Anthropic Friday deadline to remove military AI restrictions or face potential blacklisting | Latest Tech News
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Anthropic boss Dario Amodei that he has until Friday night to remove restrictions on how the US military can use the company’s Claude AI chatbot – or probably face major penalties.
Hegseth, who delivered the ultimatum during a high-stakes assembly in Washington, DC, on Tuesday afternoon, told Amodei that the Pentagon might blacklist Anthropic by declaring it a “supply chain risk,” a source acquainted with the assembly told The Post.
Alternatively, the Pentagon might use the Defense Production Act to successfully mandate that Anthropic permit use of Claude for all military functions. As of the Tuesday assembly, the Claude chatbot was the only AI model authorised for use on categorised military systems.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at Blue Origin in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Feb. 2. AFP via Getty Images
A senior Pentagon official said Anthropic has until 5:01 p.m. Eastern Time Friday to comply with the ultimatum.
Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot has acquired clearance for use in a categorised setting, while chatbots supplied by other major firms are close — giving the military a believable different to Claude, the senior official added.
“The only reason we’re still talking to these people is we need them and we need them now. The problem for these guys is they are that good,” a Defense Department official said of Anthropic to Axios forward of the assembly.
Amodei reiterated Tuesday that Anthropic wouldn’t assist the use of its technology to allow mass surveillance of Americans or to energy weapons that can fire without human oversight, said a source acquainted with the assembly. The Anthropic boss also famous that the company’s pink traces have never impacted a military operation.
A senior Defense Department official told Axios that the assembly was “not warm and fuzzy at all.”
Another source with information of the assembly told The Post that the talks have been cordial and respectful, with no raised voices.
Hegseth praised the standard of Anthropic’s merchandise and said the Pentagon would really like to continue working with the firm, the source added.
CEO and Co-Founder of Anthropic Dario Amodei speaks during the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) assembly in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 20. REUTERS
An Anthropic spokesperson said the firm had “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.”
“During the conversation, Dario expressed appreciation for the Department’s work and thanked the Secretary for his service,” the spokesperson added.
The assembly marked the fruits of months of tensions between the Pentagon and Anthropic – which has often irritated the Trump administration with its intense focus on security in AI usage and development.
The feud between the 2 sides just lately escalated in January after Claude was used in the operation to arrest Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
In this illustration, the Claude AI app is seen in the app store on a cellphone on Feb. 16. Getty Images
During the Tuesday assembly, Hegseth referenced the Pentagon’s declare, first reported by Axios earlier this month, that Anthropic had complained to fellow contractor Palantir about how its technology was used in the Maduro raid.
Amodei denied that he or anybody at Anthropic had any communication with Palantir or the Pentagon past regular operational discussions.
The Post first reported in November that Anthropic’s ties to the cultlike Effective Altruism motion and Democratic megadonors like LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman have been on the Trump administration’s radar.
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