Pentagon-Anthropic battle pushes other AI labs into major dilemma

(Dave Lawler, Maria Curi – Axios) As the Pentagon and Anthropic wage an ugly and potentially costly battle, three other leading AI labs are also negotiating with the department — and deliberating internally — about the terms under which they’ll let the military use their models. Why it matters: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to integrate AI into everything the military does more quickly and effectively than adversaries like China. He’s insisting AI firms give unrestricted access to their models with no questions asked — and showing he’s willing to play hardball to force their hands. Driving the news: The Pentagon is threatening to sever its contract with Anthropic and declare the company a “supply chain risk” because it’s unwilling to lift certain restrictions on its model, Claude. The company is particularly concerned about Claude being used for mass domestic surveillance or to develop fully autonomous weapons. The use of Claude in the Nicolás Maduro raid deepened tensions. The Pentagon claims an Anthropic executive raised concerns after the operation, though Anthropic denies that. Administration officials say it’s unworkable for the military to have to litigate individual use-cases with Anthropic before or after the fact. “We’re dead serious,” a senior Pentagon official told Axios of the threat to cut off Anthropic and force its vendors to follow suit. State of play: Crucially, Claude is the only model available in the military’s classified systems through Anthropic’s partnership with Palantir. – Pentagon-Anthropic battle pushes other AI labs into major dilemma