Pentagon and Anthropic are divided over proposals that could weaken safeguards restricting the use of AI for autonomous weapons targeting and domestic surveillance. The talks have taken place under a contract valued at up to $200 million, but negotiations have stalled after weeks of discussions, with both sides unable to reach common ground.
The dispute is seen as a test of whether technology companies, now more aligned with Washington after years of strained relations, can influence how U.S. military and intelligence agencies deploy increasingly powerful AI systems. Sources said Anthropic’s strict policies on acceptable AI use have sharpened disagreements with the Trump administration, details of which have not been reported earlier.
Pentagon officials, citing a January 9 Department memo outlining its AI strategy, have argued that commercial AI tools should be usable by the military regardless of a company’s internal usage rules, as long as their deployment complies with U.S. law.
A spokesperson for the department, renamed the Department of War under the Trump administration, did not respond to requests for comment.
In a statement, Anthropic said its AI is “extensively used for national security missions by the U.S. government and we are in productive discussions with the Department of War about ways to continue that work.” Anthropic was among a small group of major AI firms awarded Pentagon contracts last year, alongside companies such as Alphabet’s Google, Elon Musk’s xAI, and OpenAI.
Anthropic has long balanced its focus on U.S. national security with efforts to define responsible AI use. This stance has previously drawn attention from a media outlet reporting on tensions with the Trump administration.
In a recent blog post, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote that AI should support national defence “in all ways except those which would make us more like our autocratic adversaries.” He has also publicly described the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens protesting immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis as a “horror,” adding to wider concerns in Silicon Valley about government use of AI in situations involving potential violence.
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