Anthropic Picked a Fight With the Pentagon—and Misunderstood Its Place

Although the conflict in Iran quickly wiped it off the headlines, the Trump administration’s defenestration of Anthropic’s Claude is still reverberating across the artificial intelligence (AI) and defense industries. The move bolstered their competitor, OpenAI, which was more than happy to quickly ink a deal with the Pentagon. It is also proving injurious to Anthropic’s bottom line as defense companies, unwilling to cross the Department of Defense (DOD), are ceasing to work with the beleaguered AI company.

Anthropic has been staunchly defending its actions. In an open letter, Anthropic founder and CEO Dario Amodei wrote that the breaking point for his company was the Pentagon’s demand to allow for “mass domestic surveillance” and “fully autonomous weapons.” The Pentagon’s demand for the removal of its safeguards was met with refusal, and the company has now been labeled a supply chain risk.

Anthropic seemed somewhat blindsided by the events. But they shouldn’t have been. The question should not be why the Pentagon did what it did. It should be why Anthropic thought it would happen any other way.

Read more in The National Interest.