After a dramatic falling out, Anthropic and the Department of Defense don’t seem to be getting back together.
Instead, the Pentagon is building tools to replace Anthropic’s AI, according to a Bloomberg conversation with Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon’s chief digital and AI officer.
“The Department is actively seeking to introduce multiple LLMs into appropriate government-owned environments,” he said. “Engineering work on these LLMs has begun and they are expected to be operational soon.”
Anthropic’s $200 million contract with the Department of Defense (DOD) collapsed in recent weeks after the parties could not agree on the extent to which the military would have unrestricted access to Anthropic’s AI.
Anthropic tried to include a clause in the contract that would prohibit the Pentagon from using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans or deploy weapons that can be fired without human intervention, but the Pentagon would not budge. Instead, OpenAI swooped in and struck its own deal with the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense, known as the Department of the Army under the Trump administration, also signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s xAI to use Grok in sensitive systems.
So it’s understandable why the Department of Defense is working to phase out Anthropic’s technology from its workflow. Some reports had suggested that the chances of Anthropic reconciling with the Pentagon were slim, but this news suggests the government is preparing to move forward without them.
In fact, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has declared Anthropic a supply chain risk, a designation typically reserved for foreign adversaries, and prohibits companies that work with the Department of Defense from working with Anthropic as well. Anthropic is challenging this designation in court.
