Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei pushed back after U.S. officials directed defense contractors to stop using the company’s AI products. Amodei said Anthropic had been the first to deploy its models on classified U.S. military cloud networks and that the new restriction came from the Department of Defense and the White House.
Speaking to CBS News, Amodei said Anthropic objects to two specific government uses of its models: mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons that could fire without human oversight. He stressed that the company was comfortable with most proposed government applications, but drew a line at uses that threaten privacy or remove human judgment from life-and-death military decisions.
Amodei described the Pentagon’s move to label Anthropic a “supply chain risk” — which bars military contractors from commercial ties with the company on defense work — as unprecedented and punitive. He also clarified that his stance isn’t an absolute veto on autonomous weapons in the long term, saying AI might be used by foreign militaries in the future; his immediate concern is that current systems are not reliable enough to act without human control.
Earlier the same week, Pete Hegseth announced the supply-chain risk designation and said it was effective immediately, preventing any U.S. military contractors, suppliers, or partners from conducting commercial activity with Anthropic.
Hours after the designation, rival AI firm OpenAI accepted a Department of Defense contract to deploy its models across military networks. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s announcement prompted criticism online from privacy advocates and others who warned about the potential for AI-enabled mass surveillance and threats to individual privacy.
The dispute highlights a broader debate over the role of commercial AI in national defense: balancing operational advantage and innovation against privacy, civil liberties, and the ethical risks of automating lethal decisions.
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