Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated that he cannot agree to the Pentagon’s request for unrestricted access to the company’s AI systems.
Amodei identified two specific use cases that violate company principles: mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons with no human in the loop. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth set a Friday 5:01 p.m. deadline for Anthropic to acquiesce or face consequences.
The Pentagon threatened to label Anthropic a supply chain risk or invoke the Defense Production Act to force compliance. Amodei noted the contradiction in the Pentagon’s threats, stating one labels the company a security risk while the other labels its AI essential to national security.
Amodei stated that if the Department chooses to offboard Anthropic, the company will work to ensure a smooth transition to another provider. Anthropic is currently the only frontier AI lab with classified-ready systems for the military, though the DOD is reportedly preparing xAI for the role.
