Trump orders all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s AI

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The Trump administration on Friday ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology, escalating a public clash between the government and the company over what the Pentagon would be allowed to do with the models, the Associated Press reported. President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials took to social media to press the company after a deadline tied to the military’s access to Anthropic technology.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that most agencies must immediately halt using Anthropic’s AI, while the Pentagon would have six months to phase it out of military platforms already in use, according to the AP. In a separate social media post, Trump also said, “We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!”

Hegseth described Anthropic as a “supply chain risk,” a label AP reported is typically used for companies owned by U.S. adversaries. The administration’s actions came alongside public criticism that Anthropic failed to give the military unrestricted use of its AI systems by the deadline, with officials arguing the company’s refusal could affect national security.

In a statement issued Friday evening, Anthropic said it would challenge what it described as an unprecedented and legally unsound action “never before publicly applied to an American company.” Anthropic previously sought narrow assurances from the Pentagon that its Claude chatbot would not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons, while the Pentagon said it was not seeking those uses but would deploy the technology only in legal ways and insisted on access without limitations, AP reported.

Anthropic said it rejected the government’s position, stating, “No amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.” The company added that it would challenge any “supply chain risk” designation in court, AP reported.

The dispute is unfolding amid broader concerns about AI’s role in national security and how increasingly capable machines could be used in sensitive scenarios involving lethal force, confidential information or government surveillance. AP reported that the Pentagon’s effort to influence Anthropic’s internal decision-making came after months of private talks had broken into public disagreement this week.

Officials tied to the Pentagon said Anthropic’s refusal jeopardized military operations. AP reported that Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the company’s stance was “jeopardizing critical military operations and potentially putting our warfighters at risk,” while Hegseth said the Pentagon “must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic.” Trump’s social media post also warned that Anthropic should be “helpful” during the phase-out window or face “major civil and criminal consequences to follow,” AP reported.

Hours after Anthropic was punished, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on Friday night that OpenAI struck a deal with the Pentagon to supply its AI to classified military networks. Altman said that the same red lines that were the sticking point in Anthropic’s dispute—prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems—were now reflected in OpenAI’s partnership with the Defense Department, according to AP. He said the Pentagon “agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement,” and he urged the Defense Department to offer similar terms to other AI companies “as a way to de-escalate away from legal and governmental actions and toward reasonable agreements,” AP reported.

The AP account also said Trump’s administration faced internal criticism in the form of social media posts from top appointees from the Pentagon and the State Department, alongside complaints that posed contradictions. AP reported that Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the dynamic—combined with inflammatory rhetoric—raises “serious concerns about whether national security decisions are being driven by careful analysis or political considerations.”

The dispute stunned AI developers in Silicon Valley, where AP reported venture capitalists, prominent AI scientists and workers from Anthropic’s rivals, including OpenAI and Google, voiced support for Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei. AP reported that the moves could benefit OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Elon Musk’s Grok, both of which the Pentagon plans to provide access to classified military networks, and that the dispute also served as a warning to Google, which has a contract to supply its AI tools to the military.

Retired Air Force Gen. Jack Shanahan, a former leader of Pentagon AI initiatives, wrote on social media that the government “painting a bullseye on Anthropic garners spicy headlines, but everyone loses in the end.” Shanahan said Claude is already used across the government, including in classified settings, and he argued that Anthropic’s red lines were “reasonable,” while also saying large language models are “not ready for prime time in national security settings,” particularly not for fully autonomous weapons, AP reported.