The Pentagon is pushing AI companies to allow the US military to use their technology for “all lawful purposes,” but Anthropic is pushing back, according to a new report in Axios.
The government is reportedly making the same demand on OpenAI, Google and xAI. An anonymous Trump administration official told Axios that one of those companies agreed, while the other two reportedly showed some flexibility.
Anthropic, meanwhile, was said to be the most durable. In response, the Pentagon is apparently threatening to cut a $200 million contract with the AI company.
In January, the Wall Street Journal reported that there was considerable disagreement between Anthropic and Defense Department officials over how its Claude models might be used. The WSJ subsequently reported that Claude was used in a US military operation to capture then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Anthropic did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
A spokesperson for the company told Axios that the company “has not discussed the use of Claude for specific operations with the War Department,” but is instead “focused on a specific set of Use Policy issues — namely, our strict restrictions on fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance.”