OpenAI, Anthropic, and the fog of AI war

After Anthropic refused to bow to the current administration, the Pentagon labeled the company a supply-chain risk — yet bombed Iran while still using its tools

hoto by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images

On Friday afternoon, President Trump ordered every federal agency to stop using Anthropic’s AI technology. That evening, the Pentagon labeled the company a supply-chain risk, a designation that’s normally reserved for Chinese firms suspected of espionage and means it could force any company doing business with the Defense Department to prove it doesn't use Anthropic's tools.

On Saturday, the U.S. struck Iran with Anthropic's tools still running inside the military's Middle East headquarters, Central Command, using them for targeting and intelligence systems. Trump had granted agencies six months to phase out the technology, a tacit acknowledgment that you can’t rip AI from military operations overnight.

The rupture between the administration and Anthropic is nominally about guardrails. The company said it refused to let its tools be used for autonomous weapons or mass surveillance and wouldn't budge when Defense officials demanded blanket permission to use the technology in any lawful scenario. CEO Dario Amodei said the company couldn’t agree in good conscience. Trump responded by calling........

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