President Donald Trump said he was directing all federal agencies to stop working with Anthropic, blasting the artificial intelligence company as a risk to national security after a tumultuous week of negotiations between the start-up and the Pentagon.
“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,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media site Truth Social, using the administration’s preferred name for the Defense Department. “Their selfishness is putting AMERICAN LIVES at risk, our Troops in danger, and our National Security in JEOPARDY.”
Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company has resisted Pentagon demands that Anthropic allow the military to use its AI system, Claude, for any purpose permitted by the law. Anthropic had insisted on protections against its technology being used to power fully autonomous weapons or wide-scale domestic surveillance.
The escalating dispute reached an apparent impasse late Thursday after Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei wrote in a blog post that he would not concede to the Pentagon’s demands.
Emil Michael, the Defense Department’s technology chief, shot back in a post on X, calling Amodei a liar with a god complex in a late-night string of posts.
Leading up to Friday’s deadline, defense officials said they were considering branding Anthropic a supply-chain risk. The designation — normally aimed at Chinese and Russian companies — could have blocked it from doing business with the government and companies that work with federal agencies.
Officials also threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel Anthropic to provide access to Claude. Legal experts said it was unclear whether the law, which is typically used to secure supplies in an emergency, could be applied to the AI system.
Trump said he was allowing for a six-month transition period off Anthropic’s technology, vaguely threatening more consequences for the company after that.
“Anthropic better get their act together, and be helpful during this phase out period, or I will use the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow,” he wrote.
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