Pentagon Sets Deadline for Anthropic to Lift AI Restrictions or Face Contract Risks

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given AI firm Anthropic a Friday deadline to remove safeguards on its Claude AI model, allowing unrestricted military use or risk losing its Pentagon contract. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei insists on ethical limits, opposing fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of US citizens. The Pentagon warned it may label Anthropic a supply chain risk or invoke the Defense Production Act to compel compliance. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is expanding AI access to other firms like xAI, Google, and OpenAI amid ongoing debates over AI's role in national security.