Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei until Friday evening to provide the military with access to its AI model, Claude, or face severe penalties. The Pentagon is threatening to cut ties and declare Anthropic a “supply chain risk” if they don’t comply.
The issue is over the use of Claude for mass surveillance and development of autonomous weapons. Anthropic has expressed concerns that allowing such use would go against their company’s red lines. A meeting between Hegseth and Amodei was tense, with Hegseth making it clear that no company can dictate terms under which the Pentagon makes operational decisions.
The Defense Production Act is being used to pressure Anthropic into adapting its model to meet the military’s needs without safeguards. If the deal falls through, the Pentagon could lose access to Claude, which is currently the only AI model used in classified systems. The use of alternative models like Grok from Elon Musk’s xAI and Gemini from Google is also being explored.
The standoff highlights concerns over national security and the potential risks associated with relying on a single AI model for sensitive government work.
Source: https://www.axios.com/2026/02/24/anthropic-pentagon-claude-hegseth-dario