US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has made a tough demand to AI company Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. The Pentagon is demanding that the military be given unfettered access to the advanced artificial intelligence model Claude by Friday evening, without any restrictions.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has made a tough demand to AI company Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. The Pentagon is demanding that the military be given unfettered access to the advanced artificial intelligence model Claude by Friday evening, without any restrictions.
According to Axios, Hegset said during a tense closed-door meeting on Tuesday that if it refused, the US Department of War would declare Anthropic a “supply chain threat.” This would mean breaking contracts and requiring all other Pentagon contractors to ensure they do not use Claude in their work processes.
In addition, the sanctions will involve the application of the Defense Production Act, which allows the president to force private companies to perform contracts in the interests of national security.
Anthropic says it is ready to adapt its policy for military use, but categorically refuses to make concessions on using Claude for mass surveillance of US citizens and developing autonomous weapons capable of firing without human intervention.
Hegset, in turn, emphasized that he would not allow any private company to dictate terms or limit the military in how they make operational decisions.
Claude is currently the only AI model used by the US military for its most sensitive and secretive missions, including its recent operation in Venezuela against the Maduro regime , through a partnership with Palantir.
"The only reason we're still talking to these people is because we need them, and we need them immediately. The problem is, they're really that good," one War Department official told Axios.
According to sources, Claude is currently ahead of its competitors in a number of military applications, including offensive cyber operations.
