Trump Bans Federal Use of Anthropic AI in Clash Over Military Ethics

"THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL NEVER ALLOW A RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY TO DICTATE HOW OUR GREAT MILITARY FIGHTS AND WINS WARS!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. He said the company had made a "DISASTROUS MISTAKE" by trying to "STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution."

Trump directed "EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic's technology." He announced a six-month phase-out period for agencies already using its products and warned of "major civil and criminal consequences" if the company did not cooperate.

The dispute centres on Anthropic's refusal to allow two uses of its AI model, Claude: mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.

In a statement, Anthropic said it had reached an impasse with the Department of War over "two exceptions we requested to the lawful use of our AI model, Claude: the mass domestic surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons."

The company said it had "tried in good faith to reach an agreement" and supported "all lawful uses of AI for national security aside from the two narrow exceptions above." It added that, "To the best of our knowledge, these exceptions have not affected a single government mission to date."

Anthropic argued that "today's frontier AI models are reliable enough to be used in fully autonomous weapons" and that allowing such use "would endanger America's warfighters and civilians." It also said "mass domestic surveillance of Americans constitutes a violation of fundamental rights."

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said he was directing the Department to designate Anthropic "a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security." He wrote on X that "the Department of War must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic's models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic."

"Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic," Hegseth said, while allowing the company to continue services for "no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition."

Anthropic countered that such a designation would be "an unprecedented action-one historically reserved for US adversaries, never before publicly applied to an American company." It said it would "challenge any supply chain risk designation in court."

The move was slammed by the opposition Democratic lawmaker. Senator Mark Warner said the president's directive and "inflammatory rhetoric" raised "serious concerns about whether national security decisions are being driven by careful analysis or political considerations."

In a joint statement, Senators Chris Van Hollen and Edward Markey called the Pentagon's actions "an extraordinary and deeply alarming abuse of government power" and said, "This is retaliation, and it is unacceptable."

Representative Zoe Lofgren described the administration's approach as "bullying tactics," while Congresswoman Valerie Foushee warned that "AI companies have a responsibility to stand by the safeguards they publicly embraced."

- IANS