Trump’s furious reaction to Anthropic is as much about AI safety as it is about power. Science, climate and technology news

In the most obvious and consequential policy move yet on AI security, the Trump administration has announced that it will blacklist a leading AI lab for refusing to allow unfettered access to its technology for military purposes.

This president and his secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, are carrying out a nuclear attack on Anthropoid’s refusal to allow the Pentagon to use its AI for “any lawful purpose.”

Describing Anthropic as a woke, radical leftist company, the US President said on his Truth Social platform that “the leftist jobs at Anthropic made a disastrous mistake in trying to strengthen the War Department,”, adding that the company’s actions were endangering American lives and national security.

However, by now, Anthropic was doing more work to support the Pentagon than any other AI lab.

The only frontier model currently in use at scale for sensitive military planning and operations is Anthropic’s Cloud AI.

It has been widely reported that cloud AI was used as part of the Pentagon’s “Maven Smart System” to plan and execute the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.

The core of the controversy was not about Anthropic’s commitment to the US military; instead, it insists on “red lines” regarding the use of AI technology.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei sought assurances that it would not be used for mass surveillance of civilians or lethal automated attacks without human oversight.

In a statement on Wednesday, Amodei said some uses of AI were “outside the range of what today’s technology can do safely and reliably.”

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Given growing concerns about AI security, it’s a move that has stunned AI security campaigners, but it also raises serious questions about the future feasibility of the Pentagon’s “AI-first” strategy.

Why did the Pentagon threaten the AI ​​company?

Secretary Hegseth has given Anthropic six months to remove its AI from the Pentagon’s systems. But now there are questions as to what can replace it.

For the first time in the short history of superintelligent AI, this controversy appears to be uniting the AI ​​industry.

In a memo to staff Thursday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who is also in talks with the Pentagon, declared that he shares the same “red lines” as Anthropic.

Separately, more than 400 employees at Google and OpenAI have signed an open letter calling on their industry to stand together in protest of the War Department’s position.

In a copy of the OpenAI memo seen by Sky News, Altman tells staff: “Regardless of how we got here, our concern is no longer just an issue between Anthropic and DOW; our worry is an issue for the entire industry and it is important to make our stance clear.”

So, it appears that the Trump administration’s move is as much about AI safety as it is about power.

The Pentagon has already said it will not use AI for mass surveillance of the US population, nor unsupervised autonomous weapons.

Its furious reaction to Anthropic appears to be more in response to Big Tech trying to dictate terms to the government than what those terms actually are.

The administration has just declared war on a powerful rival, despite AI investment being largely responsible for current US economic growth as it captures Silicon Valley.