WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday that the artificial intelligence company 鈥渃annot in good conscience accede鈥� to the of its technology, deepening a public clash with the Trump administration that is threatening to pull its contract and take other drastic steps by Friday.
The maker of the AI chatbot Claude said in a statement that it鈥檚 not walking away from negotiations but that new contract language received from the Defense Department 鈥渕ade virtually no progress on preventing Claude鈥檚 use for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons.鈥�
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon鈥檚 top spokesman, said earlier on social media that the military 鈥渉as no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement.鈥�
Anthropic鈥檚 policies prevent its models from being used for those purposes. It鈥檚 the last of its peers 鈥� the Pentagon also has contracts with Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk鈥檚 xAI 鈥� to not supply its technology to a new U.S. military internal network.
鈥淚t is the Department鈥檚 prerogative to select contractors most aligned with their vision,鈥� Amodei wrote in a statement. 鈥淏ut given the substantial value that Anthropic鈥檚 technology provides to our armed forces, we hope they reconsider.鈥�
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic an ultimatum on Tuesday after meeting with Amodei: Allow the Pentagon to use the company’s AI as it sees fit by Friday or risk losing its government contract. Military officials warned that they could go even further and designate the company as a supply chain risk or invoke a Cold War-era law to give the military more sweeping authority to use its products.
Amodei said Thursday that 鈥渢hose latter two threats are inherently contradictory: one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security.鈥�
In a post before Amodei’s announcement, Parnell reiterated that the Pentagon wants to 鈥� for all lawful purposes鈥� but didn鈥檛 offer details on what that entailed. He said opening up use of the technology would prevent the company from 鈥渏eopardizing critical military operations.鈥�
鈥淲e will not let ANY company dictate the terms regarding how we make operational decisions,鈥� he said.
Emil Michael, defense undersecretary for research and engineering, later lashed out at the Anthropic CEO, alleging on X that Amodei 鈥渉as a God-complex鈥� and 鈥渨ants nothing more than to try to personally control the US Military and is ok putting our nation鈥檚 safety at risk.鈥�
The talks that escalated this week began months ago. Amodei said that if the Pentagon doesn’t reconsider its position, Anthropic 鈥渨ill work to enable a smooth transition to another provider.鈥�
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is not seeking reelection, said the Pentagon has been handling the matter unprofessionally while Anthropic is 鈥渢rying to do their best to help us from ourselves.鈥�
鈥淲hy in the hell are we having this discussion in public?鈥� Tillis told reporters. 鈥淭his is not the way you deal with a strategic vendor that has contracts.鈥�
He added, 鈥淲hen a company is resisting a market opportunity for fear of negative consequences, you should listen to them and then behind closed doors figure out what they鈥檙e really trying to solve.鈥�
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was 鈥渄eeply disturbed鈥� by reports that the Pentagon is 鈥渨orking to bully a leading U.S. company.鈥�
鈥淯nfortunately, this is further indication that the Department of Defense seeks to completely ignore AI governance,鈥� Warner said in a statement. It 鈥渇urther underscores the need for Congress to enact strong, binding AI governance mechanisms for national security contexts.鈥�
While Pentagon officials say they always will follow the law with their use of AI models, the department has taken steps to change the culture among the military legal ranks.
Hegseth told Fox 草莓传媒 last February, weeks after becoming defense secretary, that 鈥渦ltimately, we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice and don鈥檛 exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything.鈥�
The same month, Hegseth also fired the top lawyers for the Army and the Air Force without explanation. The Navy鈥檚 top lawyer had resigned shortly after the election in late 2024.
___
O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
