President Donald Trump has ordered all federal agencies to immediately cease using technology from Anthropic, escalating a public dispute over artificial intelligence safety. The directive came just hours before a deadline for an agreement between the Department of Defense and the AI company lapsed on Friday afternoon.
The Pentagon had demanded Anthropic relax ethical guidelines on its AI systems, but the company refused. Trump weighed in on Truth Social, accusing Anthropic of trying to 'strong-arm' the military and calling the company 'Radical Left' and 'out-of-control'. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth subsequently classified Anthropic as a supply-chain risk to national security, a designation usually reserved for foreign adversaries.
Hours later, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a new deal with the Pentagon to supply AI to classified military networks. Altman stated that the same safety principles at the heart of the dispute with Anthropic—prohibitions on mass surveillance and autonomous weapons—were enshrined in the new agreement. He urged the Pentagon to offer similar terms to all AI companies.
Hegseth said the Pentagon will continue using Anthropic's services for a transition period of up to six months, but no contractor or partner doing business with the US military may engage with Anthropic. The Government Services Administration also terminated its contracts with the company.
Anthropic responded with a statement expressing sadness over the events and vowing to challenge any supply chain risk designation in court, calling it an unprecedented action against an American company. The company said it had not received direct communications from the defence department or the White House regarding the negotiations.
