Anthropics Dario Amodei, Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth to meet as Pentagon considers placing firm on blacklist | Latest Tech News
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was set to maintain a high-stakes assembly with Anthropic boss Dario Amodei on Tuesday as they’ve been attempting to navigate rising tensions over navy use of the Claude AI chatbot.
The assembly was scheduled to come just days after reviews surfaced that Hegseth was “close” to designating Anthropic as a provide chain risk. That would successfully blacklist Anthropic, voiding its contracts and forcing other companies that do business with the US navy to stop utilizing Claude.
“Anthropic knows this is not a get-to-know-you meeting,” a senior Defense official told Axios, which first reported on the rendezvous. “This is not a friendly meeting. This is a s–t-or-get-off-the-pot meeting.”
CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei, addresses the gathering at the AI Impact Summit, in New Delhi, India, on Feb. 19. REUTERS
A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed the assembly was slated to happen but declined additional remark. Anthropic didn’t immediately return a request for remark.
Anthropic, which runs the Claude chatbot that is the only AI model at the moment accepted for use on labeled navy systems, has blocked the Pentagon from utilizing the technology to allow mass surveillance of Americans or to energy weapons that can fire without human involvement.
Tensions between the 2 sides have been rising for months, with Pentagon officers growing weary on safety-minded Anthropic’s efforts to control how its merchandise are used. The feud reportedly escalated in January after Claude was used in the operation to arrest Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
Hegseth is set to be joined in the assembly by Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg and Under Secretary for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, according to Axios.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth leaves an oath of enlistment ceremony on Feb. 6 on the bottom of the Washington Monument. AP
An Anthropic spokesperson said the company is “committed to using frontier AI in support of US national security” and was “having productive conversations, in good faith” with Hegseth’s staff.
Amodei, who cofounded the company after leaving OpenAI, has rankled his AI friends and some Trump administration officers with his frequent warnings about the technology’s security dangers.
Anthropic’s critics embrace White House AI czar David Sacks, who has accused Amodei and his allies of belonging to a camp of AI “doomers” who have been stifling innovation.
“The problem with Dario is, with him, it’s ideological. We know who we’re dealing with,” a senior Pentagon official told Axios.
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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