The Trump administration's retaliation against Anthropic after the company's refusal to allow its AI assistant Claude to be used for military purposes
Donald Trump aboard Air Force One speaking to reporters. Photo source: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / Profimedia
US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he is ordering every federal authority to immediately stop using the technology produced by the Anthropid company, specifying that for institutions such as the Department of Defense there will be a 6-month period in which to gradually abandon it, informs Reuters.
“I am ordering every federal agency of the United States government to immediately cease all use of Anthropic technology. We don't need it, we don't want it, and we will never do business with them again!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump's directive comes amid a dispute between the Pentagon and artificial intelligence company Anthropic over how the military might use AI in warfare. Anthropic has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Anthropic, AI company that helped US capture Maduro, rejects Pentagon 'threats' and invokes 'democratic values'
Dispute with the Pentagon
The problem for Anthropic is the potential use of its tools, such as its AI assistant Claude, for two purposes: “mass domestic surveillance” of citizens and “fully autonomous weapons,” Reuters and the BBC write. The Pentagon insists it doesn't want that, but demands that Anthropic remove any restrictions on its AI systems, which the company refuses.
The CEO of Anthropic said Thursday that it will not budge in its dispute with the Pentagon over how its artificial intelligence (AI) technology is used. Dario Amodei said his firm would rather stop working with the Pentagon than accept the use of its technology in a way that could “undermine, rather than defend, democratic values.”
Amodei's comments come two days after a meeting with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in which he demanded that Anthropic accept “any lawful use” of its tools. The meeting ended with a threat to remove Anthropic from the Pentagon's supply chain.
“These threats do not change our position: we cannot accept their request with a clear conscience,” Amodei said.
Reuters writes that Amodei's position calls into question the $200 million contract with the US government.
The problem for Anthropic is the potential use of its tools, like its AI assistant Claude, for two purposes: “mass domestic surveillance” of citizens and “fully autonomous weapons.” Amodei stated that “such use cases have never been included in our contracts with the War Department and we believe they should not be included now.”
An Anthropic spokeswoman added Thursday that while the company received an updated version of the contract from the Defense Department late Wednesday, it offers “virtually no progress toward preventing Claude from being used for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons.”
“The new wording presented as a compromise was accompanied by legal terms that would allow these safeguards to be ignored at will,” she said.
