US Defense Secretary Hegseth summons Anthropic CEO for tough talks over military use of ...

US Defense Secretary Hegseth summons Anthropic CEO for tough talks over military use of Claude, Axios reports

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Feb 23 (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned artificial intelligence company Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon on Tuesday for what is expected to be potentially tough talks over the military use of Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence tool, Axios reported on Monday, citing sources.

Reuters reported exclusively this month that the Pentagon was pushing big AI companies including OpenAI and Anthropic to make their AI tools available on classified networks without many of the standard restrictions that the companies apply to users.

Also this month, Axios reported that the Pentagon had been considering cutting ties with Anthropic over the latter’s insistence on retaining restrictions on how the U.S. military uses its models, which includes Claude AI.

According to its Monday report, Defense officials say the Pentagon’s talks with Anthropic are on the verge on collapsing.

A senior Defense official told the paper that Anthropic knows this is not a “get-to-know-you meeting,” according to the report.

An Anthropic spokesperson said “we are having productive conversations, in good faith,” according to Axios.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The Pentagon, White House and Anthropic did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

(Reporting by Angela Christy in Bengaluru; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Hugh Lawson)