Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday that he “can not in good conscience accede to [the Pentagon’s] request” to offer the navy unrestricted entry to its AI programs.
“Anthropic understands that the Division of Conflict, not non-public firms, makes navy choices,” Amodei wrote in a press release. “Nevertheless, in a slim set of instances, we consider AI can undermine, reasonably than defend, democratic values. Some makes use of are additionally merely outdoors the bounds of what immediately’s expertise can safely and reliably do.”
The 2 instances are: mass surveillance of Individuals and totally autonomous weapons with no human within the loop. The Pentagon believes it ought to be capable of use Anthropic’s mannequin for all lawful functions, and that its makes use of shouldn’t be dictated by a personal firm.
Amodei’s assertion comes lower than 24 hours forward of the Friday at 5:01 PM deadline Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth has given Anthropic to both acquiesce to his calls for, or face the implications. The Division of Protection has tried to pressure Amodei’s hand by both labeling Anthropic a provide chain danger — a designation reserved for international adversaries — or invoke the Protection Manufacturing Act and successfully pressure the agency to do its bidding. The DPA provides the president the authority to pressure firms to prioritize or broaden manufacturing for nationwide protection.
Amodei identified the contradiction in these two threats. “One labels us a safety danger; the opposite labels Claude as important to nationwide safety.”
He added that it’s the Division’s proper to decide on contractors most aligned with its imaginative and prescient, “however given the substantial worth that Anthropic’s expertise gives to our armed forces, we hope they rethink.”
Anthropic is at the moment the one frontier AI lab that has classified-ready programs for the navy, although the DOD is reportedly getting xAI prepared for the job.
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June 9, 2026
“Our robust desire is to proceed to serve the Division and our warfighters—with our two requested safeguards in place,” Amodei stated. “Ought to the Division select to offboard Anthropic, we are going to work to allow a clean transition to a different supplier, avoiding any disruption to ongoing navy planning, operations, or different essential missions.”
TLDR, he’s saying: ‘We will simply half methods. There’s no should be nasty about it.’
