The Pentagon has reportedly given Anthropic until Friday to let it use Claude as it sees fit

Source: Engadget

Background

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reported to have given Anthropic until Friday to drop certain guardrails for military use, according to Axios.¹ The outlet also noted that CEO Dario Amodei met with Hegseth the day before as the Pentagon increased pressure on the AI company to comply with its demands.²

Pentagon’s Ultimatum

Anthropic has been presented with an ultimatum:

• Option 1: Remove limits for specific military applications as requested by the government.
• Option 2: Potentially be forced to tailor its AI model to the government’s needs under the Defense Production Act.

Anthropic’s Position

Anthropic has stated that while it is willing to adopt certain policies for the Pentagon, it will not allow its model to be used for:

• Mass surveillance of Americans – see Dario Amodei’s essay on the “adolescence of technology.”³
• Development of autonomous weapons.⁴

Claude remains the only AI model employed in some of the government’s most sensitive work. A defense official told Axios that “the only reason we’re still talking to these people is we need them and we need them now. The problem for these guys is they are that good.”⁵

Other AI Partnerships

The Pentagon is reportedly expanding conversations with OpenAI and Google about using their models for classified work.

• ChatGPT and Gemini are already approved for unclassified government use.
• Elon Musk’s xAI recently signed an agreement with the DoD to use Grok in classified systems.⁶

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Footnotes

1. https://www.axios.com/2026/02/24/anthropic-pentagon-claude-hegseth-dario ↩

2. https://www.axios.com/2026/02/23/hegseth-dario-pentagon-meeting-antrhopic-claude ↩

3. https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology ↩

4. https://www.reuters.com/business/pentagon-clashes-with-anthropic-over-military-ai-use-2026-01-29/ ↩

5. https://www.axios.com/2026/02/24/anthropic-pentagon-claude-hegseth-dario ↩

6. https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-us-military-will-reportedly-use-elon-musks-grok-ai-in-its-classified-systems-110049021.html ↩