The Trump administration has a new rival in its ongoing feud with AI company Anthropic: Silicon Valley’s rank-and-file.
Newly reported by bloombergA coalition of labor groups representing more than 700,000 workers at Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI have made a formal request to their corporations to join Anthropic in refusing to comply with recent demands from the Pentagon.
“We are speaking today because the Pentagon is demanding that Anthropic waive two key security guardrails for the cloud, the only frontier AI model currently deployed in classified Department of War operations,” it reads. Letter. “We are writing to urge our own companies to also refuse to comply if they or the frontier laboratories they have invested in enter into further contracts with the Pentagon.”
This week, the Pentagon issued an ultimatum to Anthropic to remove two key guardrails regarding the use of its AI systems, the cloud: one preventing “large-scale domestic surveillance”, and the other preventing the Pentagon from using its technology to create AI-powered weapons that can kill without a human operator.
The Pentagon had previously agreed to maintain both guardrails entered into a contract Value up to $200 million to license the cloud for classified use in July of 2025. but after a series back-and-forth meetingsThe Pentagon ordered Anthropic to allow unfettered access to the cloud or face its wrath, including discussion of using the company’s AI in a nuclear attack scenario.
“How the Pentagon responds remains to be seen, but we know they will increasingly try to include other models without these guardrails, even as they try to force Anthropic into compliance,” the activist’s letter urges.
“If any tech company accedes to the Pentagon’s demands, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth will have gained the ability to surveil our communities – here and abroad – en masse, on an unprecedented scale,” it continues. “He will have the power to create and deploy AI-powered drones that will kill people without any human approval.”
In the face of increasing pressure from arguably the world’s most powerful military entity, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has been defiant. one in statement Published on Anthropic’s website, Amodei described the Pentagon’s increasingly desperate stance: “They have threatened to remove us from their systems if we maintain these safeguards; they have also threatened to designate us a ‘supply chain risk’… and have threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act to force the removal of the safeguards.”
“These latter two threats are inherently contradictory,” Amodei continued: “One calls us a security risk; the other calls the cloud essential to national security.”
Either way, they say Anthropic “cannot in good conscience approve their request,” with the deadline set for Friday, Feb. 27 at 5:01 p.m.
The tech staff and Amodei’s army found a particularly strange ally: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who has become a foe for Amodei as the rivalry between the two companies has heated up. But swallowing his pride – or perhaps sensing a PR opportunity – Altman sent memo to staff Thursday essentially sided with Anthropic against Hegseth and the Pentagon.
He wrote, “Regardless of how we got here, this is no longer just an issue between Anthropic and the (Pentagon); this is an issue for the entire industry and it is important to make our stance clear.” “We have long believed that AI should not be used for mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons, and that humans should remain in the loop for high-risk automated decisions. These are our main red lines.”
Zooming out, the rift draws attention to the growing contradiction between Anthropic’s dedication to ethics and its contract with the Department of Defense. While a $200 million contract is financially insignificant to the $380 billion Anthropic, allowing the Pentagon unlimited access to the cloud could carry substantial reputational and legal risks, especially when The United Nations has started efforts Banning lethal autonomous weapons globally.
In a sense, the Pentagon appears to rely more on anthropic than other methods. According To defense one, It will take the Trump administration three months or more to replace Cloud. Still, there is no accounting for the once unpredictable Trump administration. For example, as the deadline approached, Trump himself put out a sharply worded post.
He said, “The leftist nut jobs at Anthropic have made a disastrous mistake in trying to consolidate the War Department and force them to follow their terms of service instead of our Constitution.” Dhuni Ramai on Truth Social. “Their selfishness is endangering American lives, endangering our troops and endangering our national security.”
“Therefore, I am directing every federal agency of the United States government to immediately cease all use of Anthropic’s technology,” he added. “We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and we will never do business with them again!”
However, Trump acknowledged, the government would need a six-month period to phase out anthropogenic products.
More on Anthropic: Anthropic CEO says company no longer sure if cloud is conscious
