Pentagon to compel Anthropic to provide AI control of weaponry and mass surveillance

[Jamalisms]

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.

 

He also threatened to put the AI company on what could amount to a government blacklist.

 

At issue is the guardrails Anthropic placed on its AI model Claude. The Pentagon, which has a $200 million contract with Anthropic, wants the company to lift its restrictions for the military to be able to use the model for “all lawful use,” according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

 

But Anthropic has concerns over two issues that it isn’t willing to drop, the source said: AI-controlled weapons and mass domestic surveillance of American citizens. According to one source familiar, Anthropic believes AI is not reliable enough to operate weapons, and there are no laws or regulations yet that cover how AI could be used in mass surveillance.

 

A source familiar with the Tuesday meeting says the Pentagon plans to terminate Anthropic’s contract by Friday if the company does not agree to its terms. A Pentagon official told CNN the company has until 5:01pm on Friday to “get on board or not.” And if it doesn’t, Hegseth will ensure “the Defense Production Act is invoked on Anthropic, compelling them to be used by the Pentagon regardless of if they want to or not.” Hegseth will also label Anthropic a supply chain risk, the official said.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/pete-hegseth-meets-anthropic-ceo-170620096.html

 

Just another day in a Trump's America.

[MadMax]

"We voted for this!" - you know who

[reo]

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/25/tech/anthropic-safety-policy-change

 

 

Don't know if that's a complete cave or just a severe bend.

[MadMax]

15 minutes ago, reo said:

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/25/tech/anthropic-safety-policy-change

 

 

Don't know if that's a complete cave or just a severe bend.

Skynet it is.

[reo]

AI weaponry is such a bad idea... but its probably where China is going. 

[Starkiller]

Corporate profit trumps all else

[reo]

They were supposedly threatening to push Anthropic out of the US market entirely. So its not just about profit. 

 

Honestly though? I'm starting to think a lot of this AI stuff is a distraction. I'm getting pushed a ton of AI doom and gloom stuff on tiktok. The tech has tons of potential but its not there yet.

Edited 8 hours ago by reo

[Starkiller]

It’s entirely about money

[CreepingDeath]

10 minutes ago, reo said:

Honestly though? I'm starting to think a lot of this AI stuff is a distraction. I'm getting pushed a ton of AI doom and gloom stuff on tiktok.

You are strongly in the rose-colored glasses portion.  Of course, you are going to question the negative opinions/reports.  Yes, there are positives to AI.  But there are also clear negatives.  Your perspective (molded primarily by your job) is only from one angle. 

 

If negative AI talk is a distraction, what is it hiding/protecting? 

[reo]

45 minutes ago, CreepingDeath said:

You are strongly in the rose-colored glasses portion.  Of course, you are going to question the negative opinions/reports.  Yes, there are positives to AI.  But there are also clear negatives.  Your perspective (molded primarily by your job) is only from one angle. 

 

If negative AI talk is a distraction, what is it hiding/protecting? 

 

 

 

 

 

[nine]

I haven’t really followed all the AI stuff….but over the past couple years, geopolitical analyst Peter Zeihan (who is very sharp and quite informed on the subject)  has offered a number of interesting views on the subject.  
 

Zeihan’s thoughts from a couple months ago….quite informative:  

 

 

[reo]

I really like Zeihan for the most part. Hard to tell where his facts end and where his opinions begin though.

 

I'll try to watch this later.

[IsntLifeFunny]

1 hour ago, nine said:

I haven’t really followed all the AI stuff….but over the past couple years, geopolitical analyst Peter Zeihan (who is very sharp and quite informed on the subject)  has offered a number of interesting views on the subject.  
 

Zeihan’s thoughts from a couple months ago….quite informative:  

 

 

Now that is a really interesting take. Never thought about it like that. Hmm. He has a point.

 

On the other end, he's making a ton of jumps. A single point failure doesn't just halt everything for a long period. Even though globally distributed, and recreating that would take tremendous effort, replacing a single point failure doesn't cause a complete collapse of manufacturing chips. There's simply too much money to be made to let something like that happen. You would need widespread failure in several places to stop the system, and even then it isn't permanent. 

 

I don't think he's correct, but it's an interesting thought I haven't heard before. 

Edited 6 hours ago by IsntLifeFunny