Washington, Feb 28: In a public confrontation, perhaps for the first time between Silicon Valley and Washington DC, between AI and war weapons, Anthropic has refused to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to its artificial intelligence systems, triggering a sharp response from President Donald Trump and raising wider questions about who ultimately controls battlefield AI.According to TechCrunch, Anthropic’s chief executive Dario Amodei said that he “cannot in good conscience accede to [the Pentagon’s] request” for unfettered use of the company’s AI models. The remarks came less than 24 hours before at 5:01 p.m. Friday deadline imposed by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
In a written statement quoted by TechCrunch, Amodei stressed that “Anthropic understands that the Department of War, not private companies, makes military decisions.” However, he added that in a “narrow set of cases” AI systems could “undermine, rather than defend, democratic values,” and that some applications remain beyond what current technology can safely and reliably deliver.At the centre of the dispute are two red lines that Anthropic insists it will not cross: the use of its AI tools for mass surveillance of Americans and the deployment of fully autonomous weapons without a human decision-maker “in the loop.” The Pentagon, by contrast, has argued it should be able to use Anthropic’s models for any lawful purpose and that such restrictions should not be dictated by a private company.
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