AI vs. the Pentagon: killer robots, mass surveillance, and red lines | The Verge

Can AI firms set limits on how and where the military uses their models? Anthropic is in heated negotiations with the Pentagon after refusing to comply with new military contract terms that would require it to loosen the guardrails on its AI models, allowing for “any lawful use,” even mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous lethal weapons.

Pentagon CTO Emil Michael is pushing for Anthropic to be designated a “supply chain risk” if it doesn’t comply, a label usually only given to national security threats. Anthropic’s rivals OpenAI and xAI have reportedly agreed to the new terms, but even after a White House meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is still refusing to cross his company’s red line, stating that “threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.”

Follow along here for the latest updates on the clash between AI companies and the Pentagon…

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth designates Anthropic a supply chain risk

AFP via Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump (R) looks on as US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to the press following US military actions in VenezuelaNearly two hours after President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he was

banning Anthropic products from the federal government, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth took it one step further and announced that he was now designating the AI company as a “supply-chain risk,” which Anthropicsaysit is willing to challenge in court.The decision could immediately impact numerous major tech companies that use Claude in their line of work for the Pentagon, including Palantir and AWS. It is not immediately clear to what extent the Pentagon may blacklist companies that contract with Claude for other services outside of national security, Anthropic has responded, claiming the designation applies only to the use of its Claude AI on Department of Defense contract work specifically.

Read Article >Trump orders federal agencies to drop Anthropic’s AI

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesOn Friday afternoon, Donald Trump

posted on Truth Social, accusing Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, of attempting to “STRONG-ARM” the Pentagon and directing federal agencies to “IMMEDIATELY CEASE” use of its products. At issue is Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’srefusalof an updated agreement with the US military agreeing to “any lawful use” of Anthropic’s technology, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mandated in a January memo, to the frustration of many tech workersacross the industry.As we explained

earlier this week, that agreement would give the US military access to use the company’s services for mass domestic surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons, or AI that has full power to track and kill targets with no humans involved in the decision-making process. OpenAI and xAI havereportedlyalready agreed to the new terms, though OpenAI isreportedlylooking to negotiate with the Pentagon to adopt the same red lines as Anthropic.Read Article >- Even Ilya Sutskever weighed in on the Anthropic-Pentagon situation. The OpenAI co-founder, who left after CEO Sam Altman’s ouster and reinstatement and then started his own AI startup called Safe Superintelligence,

postedon X:It’s extremely good that Anthropic has not backed down, and it’s siginficant that OpenAI has taken a similar stance.

In the future, there will be much more challenging situations of this nature, and it will be critical for the relevant leaders to rise up to the occasion, for fierce competitors to put their differences aside. Good to see that happen today.

We don’t have to have unsupervised killer robots

Image: Cath Virginia / The VergeIt’s the day of the Pentagon’s looming ultimatum for Anthropic: allow the US military

unchecked accessto its technology, including for mass surveillance and fully autonomous lethal weapons, or potentially be designated a “supply chain risk” and potentially lose hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts. Amid the intensifying public statements and threats, tech workers across the industry are looking at their own companies’ government and military contracts, wondering what kind of future they’re helping to build.While the Department of Defense has spent weeks negotiating with Anthropic over removing its guardrails, including allowing the US military to use Anthropic’s AI kill targets with no human oversight, OpenAI and xAI had

reportedlyalready agreed to such terms, although OpenAI isreportedlyattempting to adopt the same red lines in the agreements as Anthropic. The overall situation has left employees at some companies with defense contracts feeling betrayed. “When I joined the tech industry, I thought tech was about making people’s lives easier,” an Amazon Web Services employee toldThe Verge, “but now it seems like it’s all about making it easier to surveil and deport and kill people.”Read Article >Anthropic refuses Pentagon’s new terms, standing firm on lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesLess than 24 hours before the deadline in an ultimatum issued by the Pentagon, Anthropic has refused the Department of Defense’s demands for unrestricted access to its AI.

It’s the

culmination of a dramatic exchangeof public statements, social media posts, and behind-the-scenes negotiations, coming down to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s desire to renegotiate all AI labs’ current contracts with the military. But Anthropic, so far, has refused to back down from its two current red lines: no mass surveillance of Americans, and no lethal autonomous weapons (or weapons with license to kill targets with no human oversight whatsoever). OpenAI and xAI hadreportedlyalready agreed to the new terms, while Anthropic’s refusal had led to CEO Dario Amodei being summoned to the White House this week for a meeting with Hegseth himself, in which the Secretaryreportedlyissued an ultimatum to the CEO to back down by the end of business day on Friday or else.Read Article >Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon AI bro squad includes a former Uber executive and a private equity billionaire

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (L) walks with Emil Michael (R), Under Secretary of Defense (Research & Engineering, while touring an exhibit of Multi-Domain Autonomous systems at the Pentagon July 16, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. Win McNamee/Getty Images.Hello and welcome toRegulator, a newsletter forVergesubscribers covering the broligarchs, the influencers, andthe (potentially conscious) artificial intelligence modelsscrambling for power in Washington. If you’re not a subscriber yet, assert your humanity against the will of the machines bysigning up here.Very important news:Do you want to tell me stuff and see it printed in Regulator? Well, now you can, because we have a new tip line! Send all commentary, cool information, and ~secrets~ to[email protected].Read Article >Inside Anthropic’s existential negotiations with the Pentagon

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesAnthropic’s weekslong battle with the Department of Defense has played out over social media posts, admonishing public statements, and direct quotes from unnamed Pentagon officials to the news media. But the future of the $380 billion AI startup comes down to just three words: “any lawful use.” The new terms, which OpenAI and xAI have

reportedlyalready agreed to, would give the US military carte blanche to use services for mass surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons, AI that has full power to track and kill targets with no humans involved in the decision-making process.The negotiations have turned ugly, with Pentagon CTO Emil Michael, formerly a top executive at the ridehailing company Uber, driving the government’s threats to designate Anthropic as a “supply chain risk,” according to two people familiar with negotiations. This classification is usually reserved for threats to national security, including malicious foreign influence or cyber warfare. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei will

reportedlymeet with Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday at the Pentagon, and an unnamed Defense official described it as a “shit-or-get-off-the-pot meeting.”Read Article >

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