Trump orders federal businesses to drop Anthropic companies amid Pentagon feud

President Donald Trump has ordered all US authorities businesses to cease utilizing Claude and different Anthropic companies, escalating an already volatile feud between the Division of Protection and firm over AI safeguards. Taking to Truth Social on Friday afternoon, the president mentioned there could be a six-month section out interval for federal businesses, together with the Protection Division, emigrate off of Anthropic’s merchandise.

“The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE attempting to STRONG-ARM the Division of Warfare, and drive them to obey their Phrases of Service as an alternative of our Structure,” the president wrote. “Anthropic higher get their act collectively, and be useful throughout this section out interval, or I’ll use the Full Energy of the Presidency to make them comply, with main civil and felony penalties to observe.”

Earlier than at the moment, US Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth had threatened to label Anthropic a “provide chain threat” if it didn’t comply with withdraw safeguards that insist Claude not be used for mass surveillance in opposition to People or in totally autonomous weapons. In a post on X published after President Trump’s statement, Hegseth mentioned he was “directing the Division of Warfare to designate Anthropic a Provide-Chain Danger to Nationwide Safety. Efficient instantly, no contractor, provider, or associate that does enterprise with the US navy could conduct any industrial exercise with Anthropic.”

Anthropic didn’t instantly reply to Engadget’s remark request. Earlier within the day, a spokesperson for the corporate mentioned the contract Anthropic obtained after CEO Dario Amodei outlined Anthropic’s place made “nearly no progress” on stopping the outlined misuses.

“New language framed as a compromise was paired with legalese that might enable these safeguards to be disregarded at will. Regardless of DOW’s latest public statements, these slim safeguards have been the crux of our negotiations for months,” the spokesperson mentioned. “We stay able to proceed talks and dedicated to operational continuity for the Division and America’s warfighters.”

Advocacy teams just like the Heart for Democracy and Know-how (CDT) shortly got here out in opposition to the president’s threats. “This motion units a harmful precedent. It chills personal firms’ capacity to have interaction frankly with the federal government about applicable makes use of of their know-how, which is very essential in nationwide safety settings that so usually have lowered public visibility,” mentioned CDT President and CEO Alexandra Givens, in an announcement shared with Engadget. “These threats undermine the integrity of the innovation ecosystem, distort market incentives and normalize an expansive view of govt energy that ought to fear People all throughout the political spectrum.”

For now, it seems the AI trade is united behind Anthropic. On Friday, tons of of Google and OpenAI workers signed an open letter urging their firms to face in “solidarity” with the lab. In response to an inner memo seen by Axios, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mentioned the ChatGPT maker would draw the identical pink line as Anthropic.

In a weblog submit printed late on Friday, Anthropic vowed to “problem any provide chain threat designation in courtroom,” and warranted its prospects that solely work associated to the Protection Division could be affected. The company’s full statement is available here, an excerpt is under:

Designating Anthropic as a provide chain threat could be an unprecedented motion—one traditionally reserved for US adversaries, by no means earlier than publicly utilized to an American firm. We’re deeply saddened by these developments. As the primary frontier AI firm to deploy fashions within the US authorities’s labeled networks, Anthropic has supported American warfighters since June 2024 and has each intention of constant to take action.

We imagine this designation would each be legally unsound and set a harmful precedent for any American firm that negotiates with the federal government.

No quantity of intimidation or punishment from the Division of Warfare will change our place on mass home surveillance or totally autonomous weapons. We are going to problem any provide chain threat designation in courtroom.

Replace, February 27, 9PM ET: This story was up to date twice after publish. First at 6PM ET to incorporate a hyperlink to and quotes from Hegseth in regards to the designation of Anthropic as a provide chain threat. Later, a quote from Anthropic was added, together with a hyperlink to the corporate’s weblog submit on the topic.