Pentagon Threatens Anthropic With $200M Contract Termination Over Refusal to Remove AI Safety Guardrails

The Pentagon is threatening to terminate Anthropic's $200 million contract and invoke the Defense Production Act after the AI company refuses to remove safety guardrails blocking AI-controlled autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance of American citizens.

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives Anthropic a Friday deadline to remove AI safety guardrails from its Claude model or face termination of its $200 million Pentagon contract.
• Anthropic refuses to budge on two key restrictions — AI-controlled autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance of American citizens — citing concerns about reliability and the lack of existing laws governing such use.
• The Pentagon threatens to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel Anthropic's cooperation and label the company a supply chain risk, a designation typically reserved for firms tied to foreign adversaries like Russia or China, which could severely damage Anthropic's business with enterprise clients holding military contracts.