Anthropic CEO refuses to comply with DoD requests on AI usage
DoD wants unrestricted access to Anthropic's models for all lawful purposes
Amodei seeks to prevent autonomous weapons and mass surveillance applications
Pentagon states it has no interest in illegal surveillance or autonomous weapons
📖 Full Retelling
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Thursday stated that his company 'cannot in good conscience' agree to the Department of Defense's requests, emphasizing that the agency's threats do not change their position on AI usage. The artificial intelligence startup has been engaged in tense negotiations with the Pentagon over how its models can be utilized, with Amodei seeking assurances that his technology won't be deployed for fully autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance of Americans. In contrast, the DoD wants unrestricted access to use Anthropic's models for all lawful purposes without limitations.
Amodei acknowledged the Pentagon's prerogative to select contractors aligned with their vision while expressing hope that the DoD would reconsider given the substantial value his company's technology provides to the armed forces. 'It is the Department's prerogative to select contractors most aligned with their vision,' Amodei wrote in a statement. 'But given the substantial value that Anthropic's technology provides to our armed forces, we hope they reconsider.'
Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell responded that the DoD has 'no interest' in using Anthropic's models for autonomous weapons or mass surveillance, which he noted is illegal, but maintained that the agency needs the company to agree to allow its models to be used for 'all lawful purposes.' 'This is a simple, common-sense request that will prevent Anthropic from jeopardizing critical military operations and potentially putting our warfighters at risk,' Parnell wrote. 'We will not let ANY company dictate the terms regarding how we make operational decisions.'
🏷️ Themes
AI ethics, Military technology, Corporate-government relations
# Anthropic PBC
**Anthropic PBC** is an American artificial intelligence (AI) safety and research company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Established as a public-benefit corporation, the organization focuses on the development of frontier artificial intelligence systems with a primary e...
Dario Amodei (born 1983) is an American artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, the company behind the large language model series Claude. He was previously the vice president of research at OpenAI.
In his capacity as Anthropic's CEO, he often ...
# Artificial Intelligence (AI)
**Artificial Intelligence (AI)** is a specialized field of computer science dedicated to the development and study of computational systems capable of performing tasks typically associated with human intelligence. These tasks include learning, reasoning, problem-solvi...
In geometry, a pentagon (from Greek πέντε (pente) 'five' and γωνία (gonia) 'angle') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°.
A pentagon may be simple or self-intersecting.
The United States Department of Defense (DoD), also referred to as the Department of War (DOW), is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the U.S. Armed Forces—the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, and, for some purposes, the Coast...
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Thursday said it "cannot in good conscience" agree to the Department of Defense's requests, adding that the agency's threats do not change its position. The artificial intelligence startup has been engaged in tense negotiations with the Pentagon over how its models can be used, and it said Thursday that those discussions are still ongoing. Anthropic wants assurance that its models will not be used for fully autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance of Americans, while the DoD wants to be able to use the models for all lawful use cases without limitation. "It is the Department's prerogative to select contractors most aligned with their vision," Amodei wrote in a statement. "But given the substantial value that Anthropic's technology provides to our armed forces, we hope they reconsider." Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said Thursday that the DoD has "no interest" in using Anthropic's models for fully autonomous weapons or to conduct mass surveillance of Americans, which he noted is illegal. He emphasized that the agency wants the company to agree to allow its models to be used for "all lawful purposes." "This is a simple, common-sense request that will prevent Anthropic from jeopardizing critical military operations and potentially putting our warfighters at risk," Parnell wrote in a post on X on Thursday. "We will not let ANY company dictate the terms regarding how we make operational decisions." This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates. Subscribe to CNBC PRO Subscribe to Investing Club Licensing & Reprints CNBC Councils Select Personal Finance Join the CNBC Panel Closed Captioning Digital Products News Releases Internships Corrections About CNBC Site Map Podcasts Careers Help Contact News Tips Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you. Get In Touch CNBC Newsletters Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Sign Up Now Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about ou...
