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President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing the appointment of Secretary of Defense. Pete Hegseth plans to use “Department of the Army” as another name for the Department of Defense.
Anthropic cannot comply with the Department of Defense’s request in an AI safeguards dispute, despite threats to remove the company from the Department of the Army’s systems, the AI company’s CEO Dario Amodei said on February 26.
The dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic stems from the AI startup’s refusal to lift safeguards that prevent its technology from being used to autonomously target weapons and conduct surveillance in the United States.
Anthropic, which is backed by Google and Amazon, has a contract worth up to $200 million with the division.
Amodei said on February 26 that the ministry announced it would only contract with AI companies that agree to “all lawful uses” and lift protections.
Amodei said AI use cases, such as domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, were not previously included in Anthropic’s contract with the department and “we don’t think they should be included right now.”
Amodei added that if Anthropic maintains the safeguards, the department has threatened to remove Anthropic from its systems, designate it as a supply chain risk and invoke the Defense Production Act to force the safeguards to be lifted.
“In any case, these threats do not change our position. We cannot in good conscience comply with their demands,” Amodei said.
Earlier, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on the X show that the department has no interest in using AI to carry out mass surveillance of Americans, nor does it want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement.
“What we’re asking is that the Department of Defense be allowed to use Anthropic models for any lawful purpose,” Parnell said.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Anthropic’s statement.
“It is the Department of Defense’s prerogative to choose the contractor that best aligns with their vision. However, given the tremendous value that Anthropic’s technology provides to our military, we hope they reconsider,” Amodei said.
“If the Department chooses to offboard Anthropic, we will work to enable a smooth transition to another provider,” he added.
An Anthropic spokesperson said the company remains “ready to continue discussions and is committed to continuing operations for the department and U.S. warfighters.”
(Reporting by Carlos Mendez and Chris Thomas in Mexico City and Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Sri Navaratnam)
