Anthropic vs. the Pentagon: killer robots, mass surveillance, and red lines – The Verge

Anthropic’s new cybersecurity model could get it back in the government’s good graces

2026-04-21T09:36:22-04:00

The Trump administration has spent nearly two months fighting with AI company Anthropic. It's dubbed the company a "RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY" full of "Leftwing nut jobs" and a menace to national security. But some of the ice may reportedly be melting between the two, thanks to Anthropic's buzzy new cybersecurity-focused model: Claude Mythos Preview.

Anthropic's relationship with the Pentagon soured quickly in late February after the company refused to budge on two red lines: using its technology for domestic mass surveillance or lethal fully autonomous weapons with no human in the loop. Anthropic's tech has in the past been used heavily b …

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Judge sides with Anthropic to temporarily block the Pentagon’s ban

2026-03-27T05:28:55-04:00

After Anthropic's weeks-long standoff with the Pentagon, the company won one milestone: A judge granted Anthropic a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit, which sought to reverse its government blacklisting while the judicial process plays out.

"The Department of War's records show that it designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk because of its 'hostile manner through the press,'" Judge Rita F. Lin, a district judge in the northern district of California, wrote in the order, which will go into effect in seven days. "Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government's contracting position is classic illegal First Amendme …

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Senate Democrats are trying to ‘codify’ Anthropic’s red lines on autonomous weapons and mass surveillance

2026-03-25T11:05:46-04:00

Anthropic's fight with the Pentagon is expanding to Congress. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is working on a new bill to "codify" Anthropic's red lines and ensure humans make the ultimate decisions in questions of life and death, and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) recently introduced a bill to limit the Defense Department's ability to use AI for mass surveillance of Americans.

The Trump administration blacklisted Anthropic earlier this month after it set limits on how the military could use its AI models, designating it a supply-chain risk. Anthropic has filed suit, accusing the government of violating its constitutional rights. It's insisted that the …

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David Sacks’ big Iran warning gets big time ignored

2026-03-24T11:22:27-04:00

Sec. Scott Bessent, President Donald Trump, and David Sacks during The White House Digital Assets Summit in Washington, DC, on Friday, March 7, 2025. | Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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The mysterious case of the DHS white supremacist memelord

2026-03-20T10:56:23-04:00

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Anthropic is launching a new think tank amid Pentagon blacklist fight

2026-03-10T17:53:45-04:00

Amid a weekslong conflict with the Pentagon, resulting in a blacklist and a lawsuit, Anthropic is shaking up its C-suite and research initiatives. The company announced Wednesday that it's launching a new internal think tank, called the Anthropic Institute, that combines three of Anthropic's current research teams. It will focus on researching AI's large-scale implications, such as "what happens to jobs and economies, whether AI makes us safer or introduces new dangers, how its values might shape ours, and whether we can retain control," per the company.

The news comes with C-suite changes, too. Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark is moving int …

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Employees across OpenAI and Google support Anthropic’s lawsuit against the Pentagon

2026-03-27T00:46:32-04:00

On Monday, Anthropic filed its lawsuit against the Department of Defense over being designated as a supply chain risk. Hours later, nearly 40 employees from OpenAI and Google - including Jeff Dean, Google's chief scientist and Gemini lead - filed an amicus brief in support of Anthropic's lawsuit, detailing their concerns over the Trump administration's decision and the technology's risks and implications.

The news follows a dramatic few weeks for Anthropic, in which the Trump administration labeled the company a supply chain risk - a designation typically reserved for foreign companies that the government deems a potential risk to national …

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Anthropic is suing the Department of Defense

2026-03-09T12:54:48-04:00

Anthropic has sued the US government over its designation as a supply-chain risk, the latest move in a weekslong battle between it and the Pentagon over the acceptable use cases for its military AI tech. The suit, filed in a California district court, accuses the Trump administration of illegally punishing the company for setting "red lines" on mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.

"The federal government retaliated against a leading frontier AI developer for adhering to its protected viewpoint on a subject of great public significance - AI safety and the limitations of its own AI models - in violation of the Constitution …

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The Pentagon formally labels Anthropic a supply-chain risk

2026-03-06T06:06:06-05:00

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press conference on US military action in Iran, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on March 2, 2026. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

After weeks of failed negotiations, public ultimatums, and lawsuit threats, the Defense Department has formally labeled Anthropic a "supply-chain risk," escalating its fight with the AI company over their acceptable use policies and potentially bringing their fight to court.

The decision, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, citing one source familiar, will bar defense contractors from working with the government if they use Claude, Anthropic's AI program, in their products. Though the designation is typically applied to foreign companies with ties to adversarial governments, this is the first time that an American company …

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Anthropic makes last-ditch effort to salvage deal with Pentagon after blowup

2026-03-05T06:46:46-05:00

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is reportedly back at the negotiating table with the Department of Defense in an attempt to salvage the company's relationship with the US military and prevent it from being iced out of defense work for being a "supply chain risk." Talks between the two parties imploded on Friday after weeks of bitter public feuding over the startup's refusal to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to its AI, with rivals like OpenAI rushing to fill the void.

Amodei is in talks with under-secretary of defense for research and engineering Emil Michael about a new contract that would allow the US military to continue using Anthropi …

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