US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has threatened to cut Anthropic from his department’s supply chain unless it agrees to sign off on its technology being used in all lawful military applications by Friday.
The threat is the latest escalation in a feud between Anthropic and the department, triggered by the AI group’s refusal to give unfettered access to its models for classified military use, including domestic surveillance and deadly missions with no direct human control.
Hegseth summoned Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei to Washington for a meeting on Tuesday. During tense talks, the defense secretary threatened to cut the company out of the department’s supply chain or to invoke the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era measure enabling the president to control domestic industry in the interest of national defense, said a person with knowledge of the talks.
Anthropic had until 5:01 pm on Friday “to get on board or not” with Hegseth’s terms, said a senior Pentagon official.
“If they don’t get on board, [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,” the official said. The Defense Department would also label Anthropic “a supply chain risk.”
“You can’t lead tactical ops by exception,” the official added, claiming “this has nothing to do with mass surveillance and autonomous weapons being used.”
Anthropic said it had continued with “good-faith conversations about our usage policy to ensure Anthropic can continue to support the government’s national security mission in line with what our models can reliably and responsibly do.”