'Cannot In Good Conscience Accede': Anthropic Rejects Pentagon's Request In AI Safeguards Dispute

Last Updated:February 27, 2026, 07:38 IST

Anthropic said in a statement that Pentagon’s new language was framed as a compromise but "was paired with legalese that would allow those safeguards to be disregarded at will."

Anthropic on Thursday rejected the Pentagon’s latest offer to change its contract, saying the changes do not satisfy the company’s concerns that AI could be used for mass surveillance or in fully autonomous weapons.

Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO, said the artificial intelligence company “cannot in good conscience accede" to the Pentagon’s demands to allow unrestricted use of its technology. The move is set to deepen the public clash with the Trump administration, which is threatening to pull its contract and take other drastic steps by Friday.

According to CNN, the Pentagon and Anthropic are at odds over restrictions the company places on the use of Claude, the first AI system to be used in the military’s classified network.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Tuesday that if Anthropic does not allow its AI model to be used “for all lawful purposes," the Pentagon would cancel Anthropic’s $200 million contract.

In addition to the contract cancellation, Anthropic would be deemed a “supply chain risk", a classification normally reserved for companies connected to foreign adversaries, Hegseth said.

Anthropic said in a statement that the Pentagon’s new language was framed as a compromise but “was paired with legalese that would allow those safeguards to be disregarded at will."

The maker of the AI chatbot Claude said in a statement that it’s not walking away from negotiations, but that new contract language received from the Defense Department “made virtually no progress on preventing Claude’s use for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons."

“I believe deeply in the existential importance of using AI to defend the United States and other democracies, and to defeat our autocratic adversaries," Amodei wrote in a lengthy blog post on Thursday.

Amodei said Anthropic understands that the Pentagon, “not private companies, makes military decisions. But in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values."

The use cases like mass surveillance and autonomous weapons are “outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do," he added.

Amodei said the Pentagon’s “threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request."

News world 'Cannot In Good Conscience Accede': Anthropic Rejects Pentagon's Request In AI Safeguards Dispute

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