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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday<\/a> that he \u201ccannot in good conscience accede to [the Pentagon\u2019s] request\u201d to give the military unrestricted access to its AI systems.<\/p>\n \u201cAnthropic understands that the Department of War, not private companies, makes military decisions,\u201d Amodei wrote in a statement. \u201cHowever, in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values. Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today\u2019s technology can safely and reliably do.\u201d<\/p>\n The two cases are: mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons with no human in the loop. The Pentagon believes<\/a> it should be able to use Anthropic\u2019s model for all lawful purposes, and that its uses shouldn\u2019t be dictated by a private company.<\/p>\n Amodei\u2019s statement comes less than 24 hours ahead of the Friday 5:01 p.m. deadline<\/a> Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given Anthropic to either acquiesce to his demands, or face the consequences. The Department of Defense has attempted to force Amodei\u2019s hand<\/a> by either labeling Anthropic a supply chain risk \u2014 a designation reserved for foreign adversaries \u2014 or invoke the Defense Production Act and effectively force the firm to do its bidding. The DPA gives the president the authority to force companies to prioritize or expand production for national defense.<\/p>\n Amodei pointed out the contradiction in those two threats. \u201cOne labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that it\u2019s the Department\u2019s right to choose contractors most aligned with its vision, \u201cbut given the substantial value that Anthropic\u2019s technology provides to our armed forces, we hope they reconsider.\u201d<\/p>\n Anthropic is currently the only frontier AI lab that has classified-ready systems for the military, though the DOD is reportedly getting xAI ready for the job. <\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBoston, MA<\/span> \u201cOur strong preference is to continue to serve the Department and our warfighters\u2014with our two requested safeguards in place,\u201d Amodei said. \u201cShould the Department choose to offboard Anthropic, we will work to enable a smooth transition to another provider, avoiding any disruption to ongoing military planning, operations, or other critical missions.\u201d<\/p>\n TLDR, he\u2019s saying: \u201cWe can just part ways. There\u2019s no need to be nasty about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 9, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n