President Donald Trump said Friday that he was banning federal agencies from using the services of AI company Anthropic.
The declaration comes after months of increasingly heated rhetoric between the Defense Department and Anthropic over the military’s use of its systems.
“I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Anthropic did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The company, led by CEO Dario Amodei, has made clear in months of contract negotiations with the Pentagon that it will not allow its AI systems to be harnessed for domestic surveillance or direct use in lethal autonomous weapons.
The Pentagon has maintained that it must be allowed to employ its AI systems for “any lawful use,” which may violate Anthropic’s red lines.
“I believe deeply in the existential importance of using AI to defend the United States and other democracies,” Amodei wrote in a statement Thursday night, but “using these systems for mass domestic surveillance is incompatible with democratic values.” Amodei added that “today, frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons.”
In a series of tweets late Thursday night, Undersecretary of Defense Emil Michael wrote on X that Amodei “is a liar and has a God-complex. He wants nothing more than to try to personally control the US Military and is ok putting our nation’s safety at risk.”
Earlier Thursday, Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on X that the Pentagon’s desire to use Anthropic’s model for all lawful purposes “is a simple, common-sense request that will prevent Anthropic from jeopardizing critical military operations.”
Anthropic currently has a contract worth up to $200 million with the Pentagon to “advance responsible AI in defense operations” and works with data analytics company Palantir to provide its AI services on classified defense and intelligence networks.
Throughout Friday, a growing chorus of lawmakers had called on the parties to deescalate their feud and come to an amicable solution, contrasting with the relative silence from Anthropic and the Pentagon in the hours before the deadline.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made public Friday afternoon, Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said the Pentagon’s “threats to punish an American AI company for refusing to surrender basic safeguards on the use of its AI model represent a chilling abuse of government power.”
Rep. George Whitesides, D-Ca., told Hegseth he was “concerned that your threats to compel changes to safety policies on an accelerated timeline could push the Department toward broader deployment without sufficient guardrails” in a letter released Friday morning.
Unlike many major defense technologies, today’s leading AI systems have been developed primarily in the private sector, by companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google. The increasing capabilities of these systems have forced the Pentagon to bargain with Anthropic over its usage policies or opt for a less proven services. Until this week, Anthropic was the only leading AI company that had been cleared to offer services on classified networks.
In a memo sent to employees Thursday evening and viewed by NBC News, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that his company would largely follow Anthropic’s approach if it were in the same position with the Pentagon.
“We have long believed that AI should not be used for mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons, and that humans should remain in the loop for high-stakes automated decisions. These are our main red lines,” he wrote.
Altman added that “this is no longer just an issue between Anthropic and the DoW; this is an issue for the whole industry and it is important to clarify our stance.”
It’s unclear how other leading AI companies would respond. Google, Meta and xAI did not respond to a request for comment.
