Can the Pentagon force an AI company to loosen its guardrails?
Franklin Turner spoke to Reuters about the escalation of tension between the US Department of Defense and Anthropic over the company’s refusal to ease military-use restrictions on its technology. In a meeting between Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Amodei said the company would refuse to remove safeguards that would prevent its technology from being used to target weapons autonomously and conduct U.S. domestic surveillance. Hegseth warned that the Pentagon could either invoke the Defense Production Act to compel Anthropic to comply with its demands, or deem the company a supply chain risk, a determination typically imposed on companies from foreign adversaries. This could upend Anthropic’s business with other companies that do business with the U.S. government.
“This specific scenario is unprecedented and will almost certainly trigger a raft of downstream litigation if the Administration takes adverse action against Anthropic here,” Turner notes. His perspective underscores the significant legal and procurement ripple effects that could follow, particularly for contractors operating at the intersection of AI innovation and federal defense priorities.