Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is pressuring Anthropic to give the military broader access to its artificial intelligence technology or lose its Pentagon contract.

AI safety and research company Anthropic has told the Pentagon it will not agree to their demands to drop critical safety precautions and grant the U.S. military full access to their AI capabilities.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the company that owns the AI assistant Claude would be punished unless it drops all ethical guidelines.

Tech lawyers and AI policymakers warn that the Pentagon’s plans to compel Anthropic to abandon its ethical red lines are contradictory and could chill partnerships between the government and Silicon

The US government is putting pressure on AI company Anthropic over military use of its technology. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given a deadline for the company to allow its AI to be used in legal defense work.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei a Friday deadline to comply with demands to peel back safeguards on its AI model or risk losing a Pentagon contract.

Pete Hegseth had threatened to cancel $200m contract unless it was given unfettered access to Claude model

The Department of Defense gave the AI company a deadline of Friday to allow the Pentagon to use its AI as it sees fit or face steep penalties.