Overview
- The administration directed all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s Claude immediately, with President Trump warning of civil and criminal consequences for noncompliance.
- The Pentagon will phase Claude out of classified networks over six months and plans to designate Anthropic a supply‑chain risk, a measure typically used for adversary companies.
- OpenAI will take over the Defense Department contract, and CEO Sam Altman said they agreed on safety principles that restrict mass domestic surveillance and retain human responsibility for autonomous weapons.
- Anthropic had supported Pentagon systems since last year but rejected requests to relax usage limits, with CEO Dario Amodei saying he could not accept the demands on conscience.
- Reports that Claude was used in a January operation in Venezuela intensified internal concerns and preceded a meeting where the defense secretary warned Anthropic it would be removed from DoD contracts.