Refused to give the Pentagon the green light: Anthropic is "blacklisted" by the Trump administration!

The Trump administration has recently ordered federal agencies and contractors working with the military to cease all business dealings with Anthropic. Previously, Anthropic refused the Pentagon’s request to allow the military unrestricted use of its AI technology.

On Friday, February 27, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that government agencies, including the Pentagon, should gradually stop using Anthropic’s products within six months.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later posted on X that Anthropic would be considered a “supply chain risk” company, a designation typically reserved for firms believed to be connected to foreign adversaries.

This major move marks the end of a week-long intense standoff between this leading AI company and the U.S. government. The confrontation also has far-reaching implications for the future application of rapidly advancing AI technology.

AI Safety Restrictions Controversy

For some time, Anthropic and the Pentagon have been at odds over restrictions on the use of AI models.

Based on a previously agreed $200 million contract, Anthropic set two red lines: its Claude model cannot be used for autonomous weapons or for large-scale surveillance of U.S. citizens.

On one side, the Pentagon wanted Anthropic to lift restrictions, allowing the military to use the model for “all lawful purposes.” On the other side, Anthropic argued that AI is not reliable enough to control weapons, and there are currently no laws regulating AI’s use in mass surveillance.

During a key meeting at the Pentagon on Tuesday, February 24, the standoff between Hegseth and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei reached its peak.

Hegseth reportedly issued a “final warning” to Amodei, demanding that he remove security measures from their AI models by this Friday, February 27, or risk losing the Pentagon contract.

Ultimately, on Thursday, February 26, Anthropic announced it would not bow to the Pentagon’s demands and chose to stand firm against the U.S. Department of Defense.

In a statement, Amodei said, “Threats will not change our position: we will not accept their demands passively.”

“Serious Mistake”

Regarding Anthropic’s stance, Trump posted on Friday that the company had made a “serious mistake” and accused it of attempting to interfere with military operations. Shortly after Trump’s statement, the U.S. General Services Administration announced it would remove Anthropic from the “U.S. Government AI Platform” (a centralized platform for testing AI tools for federal agencies).

Hegseth also stated on Friday, “Any contractor, supplier, or partner doing business with the U.S. military will be prohibited from working with Anthropic.”

Emil Michael, Deputy Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, defended the Pentagon’s stance in an interview, saying, “This is a simple and reasonable request that will prevent Anthropic from jeopardizing critical military operations and potentially endangering our personnel.”

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell added, “We will never let any company dictate how we make combat decisions.”

However, this week, the AI industry largely defended Anthropic. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed similar concerns about collaborating with the Pentagon as Anthropic did.