US President Donald Trump on Friday demanded that all federal agencies stop using Anthropic's artificial intelligence tools after the company refused to bow to pressure to remove guardrails on its technology.
In a social media post, Mr Trump called the AI firm led by chief executive Dario Amodei a “radical left” and “woke” company.
“The leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a disastrous mistake trying to strong-arm the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution,” he wrote on Truth Social, claiming that the company was being selfish and “putting American lives at risk”.
Shortly after the announcement, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said the administration now considers Anthropic a “supply chain risk to national security.”
Anthropic has several lucrative contracts with the US government, and the move could affect the company's revenue.
It's the latest in a back-and-forth battle brewing between Anthropic and the Trump White House that has gained momentum in recent weeks.
Earlier in the week, Mr Hegseth gave the company until Friday to loosen restrictions on how the Defence Department uses its AI tools. As the deadline loomed, the tech company said it could “not in good conscience concede to these requests”.
“It is the department’s prerogative to select contractors most aligned with their vision,” Mr Amodei said. “But given the substantial value that Anthropic’s technology provides to our armed forces, we hope they reconsider.”
The Future of Life Institute, a non-profit group that says it promotes the idea of ample AI oversight and regulation, praised Anthropic for its stance.
“Fully autonomous weapons systems and Orwellian AI-enabled domestic mass surveillance are affronts to our dignity and liberty,” said Max Tegmark, Future of Life Institute chairman.
“We highly commend Anthropic, OpenAI and leading researchers from across AI companies for standing up for the principle that AI should never be used to kill people without meaningful human control, and that domestic mass surveillance of US citizens is a red line that should never be crossed.”
Some of Anthropic's concerns about lifting its restrictions revolve around the US government's potential use of its technology to conduct surveillance against US citizens, among other things.
On Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell hit back against those concerns.
“This narrative is fake and being peddled by leftists in the media,” he posted on X.
That post, however was challenged a significant amount of X users and later given a community note for context.
“Pete Hegseth and the Department of War are requiring that Anthropic remove usage guidelines that prevent using Claude for autonomous weaponry and mass surveillance,” the community note read.
Earlier in the week, technology expert Dean Ball, who worked on crafting Mr Trump's AI Action Plan, expressed concern with what he called Mr Hegseth's escalatory approach to Anthropic.
“A mere contract cancellation is not what is being threatened by the government,” Mr Ball posted on X. “Instead it is something broader: designation of Anthropic as a 'supply chain risk.' This is normally applied to foreign-adversary technology like Huawei.”
While Anthropic does not have the name recognition of OpenAI or Google, the company has gained a loyal following through its Claude AI chatbot. It has attracted many customers with its coding models that have cut software development time down significantly and levelled the playing field for start-ups and novice developers.
Anthropic has also pushed a vision for AI that differs from that of its rivals. “Anthropic is a public benefit corporation dedicated to securing its benefits and mitigating its risks,” says a message on its website.
Last year, it went against the grain of many in the US technology industry by defending strict US chip export policies that antagonised companies such as Nvidia and Microsoft, which felt the rules would harm American influence in the global AI race.
With recent upgrades to many of its AI tools used by millions, the company has received acclaim from technology analysts.
In February, Anthropic concluded a $30 billion Series G funding round with the help of investors like MGX, GIC, Coco, DE Shaw Ventures, Dragoneer, Founders Fund and ICONIQ.
