Pentagon Issues Threat to Anthropic

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US military had used Anthropic’s Claude AI chatbot for its invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of the country’s president Nicolás Maduro. The exact details of Claude’s use remain hazy, but the incident demonstrated the Pentagon’s prioritization of the use of AI, and how tools available to the public may already be involved in military operations. And when Anthropic learned about it, its response was icy. An Anthropic spokesperson remained tight-lipped on whether “Claude, or any other AI model, was used for any specific operation, classified or otherwise” in a statement to the WSJ, but noted that “any use of Claude — whether in the private sector or across government — is required to comply with our Usage Policies, which govern how Claude can be deployed.” The deployment reportedly occurred through the AI company’s partnership with the shadowy military contractor Palantir. Anthropic also signed an up to $200 million contract with the Pentagon last summer as part of the military’s broader adoption of the tech, alongside OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and xAI’s Grok. Whether the Pentagon’s use of Claude broke any of Anthropic’s rules remains unclear. Claude’s usage guidelines forbid it from being used to “facilitate or promote any act of violence,” “develop or design weapons,” or “surveillance.” Either way, Trump administration officials are now considering cutting ties with Anth...