In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) equated the DOD's decision to label Anthropic a "supply-chain risk" as retaliation, arguing that the Pentagon could simply have terminated its contract with the AI lab.
The Defense Department said concerns that Anthropic might "attempt to disable its technology" during "warfighting operations" validate its decision to label the AI firm a supply-chain risk.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren noted that Grok, xAI's controversial chatbot, has created harmful outputs for users and poses a potential national security risk.
Anthropic filed suit against the Department of Defense on Monday after the agency labeled it a supply-chain risk. The complaint calls the DOD's actions "unprecedented and unlawful."
Anthropic and the Pentagon are clashing over AI use in autonomous weapons and surveillance, raising high-stakes questions about national security, corporate control, and who sets the rules for military AI.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday that he "cannot in good conscience accede" to the Pentagon's demands to give the military unrestricted access to its AI systems.
The Pentagon has given Anthropic until Friday to loosen AI guardrails or face potential penalties, escalating a high-stakes dispute that raises questions about government leverage, vendor dependence, and investor confidence in defense tech.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon for a tense discussion over the military's use of Claude. Hegseth has threatened to designate Anthropic a "supply chain risk."