No. of Recommendations: 12
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/24/tech/hegseth-anthro... Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei a Friday deadline to comply with demands to peel back safeguards on its AI model or risk losing a Pentagon contract.
He also threatened to put the AI company on what could amount to a government blacklist.
At issue is the guardrails Anthropic placed on its AI model Claude. The Pentagon, which has a $200 million contract with Anthropic, wants the company to lift its restrictions for the military to be able to use the model for “all lawful use,” according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
But Anthropic has concerns over two issues that it isn’t willing to drop, the source said: AI-controlled weapons and mass domestic surveillance of American citizens. According to one source familiar, Anthropic believes AI is not reliable enough to operate weapons, and there are no laws or regulations yet that cover how AI could be used in mass surveillance.
“You can’t lead tactical ops by exception,” a Pentagon official said. “Legality is the Pentagon’s responsibility as the end user.”
A source familiar with the Tuesday meeting says the Pentagon plans to terminate Anthropic’s contract by Friday if the company does not agree to its terms. The Pentagon official told CNN the company has until 5:01pm on Friday to “get on board or not.” And if it doesn’t, Hegseth will ensure “the Defense Production Act is invoked on Anthropic, compelling them to be used by the Pentagon regardless of if they want to or not.” Hegseth will also label Anthropic a supply chain risk, the official said.
The DPA is a law that gives the government the ability to influence businesses in the interest of national defense, recently invoked by the Trump administration during the pandemic. The supply chain risk designation would prohibit companies with military contracts from using Anthropic’s products in any of their military work. It could deal a major blow to the AI firm at a time when it’s trying to expand its reach in the enterprise space, considering many large corporations have military contracts. The designation is usually reserved for companies seen as extensions of foreign adversaries like Russia or China.
Jeff
