In brief
- Trump ordered federal agencies to “immediately cease” using Anthropic’s AI technology.
- The order follows a dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon over the use of Claude for unrestricted military use.
- Trump has given agencies six months to phase out Anthropic systems.
President Donald Trump has directed all U.S. federal agencies to stop using artificial intelligence technology developed by Anthropic, escalating a dispute between the AI company and the Pentagon over how the military uses the technology.
In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump said agencies must “immediately cease” using Anthropic products, with a six-month phase-out period for departments that already use the company’s technology.
“The United States of America will never allow a radical left, woke company to dictate how our great military fights and wins wars!” Trump wrote. “That decision belongs to your commander-in-chief and the tremendous leaders I appoint to run our military.
The directive follows Anthropic’s refusal on Thursday to remove safeguards preventing Claude from being used for “mass domestic surveillance” or “fully autonomous weapons,” after Pentagon officials demanded contractors allow their systems to be used for “any lawful use.”
“The left-wing 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.
President Trump called the situation a threat to U.S. troops and national security.
“Their selfishness is putting American lives at risk, our troops in danger, and our national security in jeopardy,” Trump said.
Anthropic has resisted Pentagon demands to grant unrestricted military use of its models, while also recently walking back safety language in its Responsible Scaling Policy.
On Friday, CNBC reported that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he is working to “help de-escalate” the situation. De-escalating the tension could be a heavy lift, however.
In his post, Trump said decisions affecting U.S. military operations must remain under presidential authority rather than “some out-of-control, radical left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real world is all about,” he said.
“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,” Trump said.
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