Defense Secretary and guy who would really like you to know that he lifts, Pete Hegseth, is apparently trying to posturemogg Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei into submission so the military can return to indiscriminate killmaxxing. According to a report from Axios, the head of the wannabe War Department met with Anthropic’s founder on Tuesday and issued an ultimatum to drop the safeguards that prevent Claude from being used for dubious and dangerous purposes, or the AI startup could potentially be labeled as a national security threat.
The meeting, which a spokesperson for Anthropic confirmed to Gizmodo occurred Tuesday morning, was a culmination of an ongoing standoff between the company and the Trump administration, which has been something of a multi-front war for Anthropic. Previously, Trump’s AI Czar, David Sacks, took specific aim at Anthropic for its public support of regulatory frameworks for AI models. But the showdown with Hegseth has stemmed from the Department of Defense’s desire to integrate Anthropic’s Claude into all parts of the military’s operations despite the company’s objections.
The core of the issue, according to Axios, seems to be Anthropic’s stance that its technology not be used for mass domestic surveillance or to develop fully autonomous weapons that would operate without human involvement. Those are lines that Hegseth and the DoD seem unwilling to accept—though frankly, it seems like any line is unacceptable to them. Axios described the Defense Department’s desire as wanting “unfettered access” to Claude and reported that the agency previously raised objections to having to litigate individual use cases.
The stalemate has reportedly led to Hegseth offering something of an ultimatum: either comply with the Department of Defense’s demands or face the consequences. Those potential penalties included having the agency cancel contracts with the company, declaring Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” or invoking the Defense Production Act to force the company to build a model for the military’s desired purposes.
A source familiar with the meeting confirmed to Gizmodo that a Friday deadline has been set for Anthropic to accept the Department of Defense’s terms or have its contract terminated. The source also confirmed the potential penalties put forth by the DoD should Anthropic choose not to comply.
“Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with Secretary Hegseth at the Pentagon this morning. During the conversation, Dario expressed appreciation for the Department’s work and thanked the Secretary for his service,” the spokesperson said. “We continued 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.”
It’s hard not to read Hegseth’s public strong-arm attempt as anything other than a show of force. A source familiar with the meeting said that Anthropic’s red lines haven’t actually interfered with any of the Pentagon’s operations, and no one in the field has had their work stifled by Anthropic’s safeguards. Even after the Pentagon reportedly used Claude in its raid that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Anthropic reportedly did not object.
Given that, Hegseth’s position seems a bit muddled. Anthropic is such a national security risk that it might need to be designated in a way that’s similar to Chinese tech firms, and so key to military operations that the government may need to just take it over. Feels like Hegseth might have put a few too many plates on the bar for this lift, but we’ll see.
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