Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s insistence that the company’s AI models cannot be used for mass surveillance of Americans or directing killer drones has caused a major storm.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump directed all government agencies to stop using the company’s software “effective immediately” and labeled the company as a “supply chain risk.” sending shock waves all around The entire technology industry.
There’s little love lost between AI leaders and the White House. In a leaked memo to employees on Friday recipient InformationAmodei ignited a firestorm by calling on the president – as well as his arch rival and fellow OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman – to bend the knee.
“The real reason (the War Department) and the Trump administration don’t like us is that we haven’t donated to Trump,” he wrote, “We haven’t given Trump dictator-style praise (whereas Sam has).
It’s true that OpenAI President Greg Brockman said Donated 25 million dollars For Trump Super PAC. altman Also donated 1 million dollars To fund Trump’s inauguration in late 2024.
After negotiations broke down between Anthropic and the Pentagon – a feud that reportedly began Anthropic’s cloud was found to be used Altman saw an opportunity to pounce and capitalize – during the attacks on Venezuela, which triggered a major PR crisis as a significant number of users accused the company of caving in to the demands of the Trump administration.
In the memo, Amodei also argued that “we have supported AI regulation, which is against their agenda, we have told the truth about many AI policy issues (like job displacement), and we have actually kept our red lines with integrity rather than colluding with them to produce ‘security theater’ for the benefit of workers.”
It remains to be seen whether Anthropic will maintain those “red lines” going forward. As bloomberg informed Talks between the company and the Pentagon resumed on Wednesday, less than a week after the memo was sent, highlighting ongoing efforts to fix things.
Had they let the controversy slide, Altman’s efforts to incorporate OpenAI into the situation could have been greatly complicated. What this will mean for Anthropic’s recent classification of being a supply chain risk is also completely unclear.
The tussle has put the military in a very awkward position as Anthropic’s cloud chatbot continues to perform a vital function during the United States’ attacks on Iran – despite explicit orders from the President and Hegseth to immediately stop using it.
An administration official said, “Ultimately, this is about our war fighters having the best equipment to win the fight and you can’t trust that Claude isn’t secretly pushing Dario’s agenda in a classified setting.” told Axios On Wednesday.
Another source said Anthropic did not want to control the Pentagon’s use of its chatbot, an aspect of the conversation that was not clearly captured in the media.
In short, this feud has now turned into a larger battle of AI companies trying to establish themselves as an ethical alternative – if there even exists one. Atrocity The broader tech industry is unaffected by this as it is committed in Iran. Trump’s decision to label Anthropic as a supply chain risk, a term usually reserved for companies run by American adversaries, has taken Silicon Valley leaders by surprise.
A Big Tech industry group, whose members include AI chip makers Nvidia, Amazon and Apple, sent a public letter to Hegseth, arguing that they are “concerned” about “the War Department’s idea of imposing a supply chain risk designation in response to a procurement dispute.” quoted by reuters.
The designation “could undermine the government’s access to best-in-class products and services from American companies serving all agencies and components of the federal government,” the letter reads.
More on the feud: Anthropogenic explosion with military use of cloud for upcoming nuclear attack
