By David Jeans
NEW YORK, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Artificial intelligence lab Anthropic has no intention of easing its usage restrictions for military purposes, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, following a meeting to discuss its future with the Pentagon.
The meeting between Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was scheduled to hash out a months-long dispute between the two sides. The AI startup has refused to remove safeguards that would prevent its technology from being used to target weapons autonomously and conduct U.S. domestic surveillance.
Pentagon officials have argued the government should only be required to comply with U.S. law.
During the meeting, Hegseth delivered an ultimatum to Anthropic: be deemed a supply-chain risk or the government would invoke a law that would force Anthropic to change its rules, the person familiar said. The government gave Anthropic until Friday to respond.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a comment request.
(Reporting by David Jeans in New York; writing by Deepa Seetharaman in San Francisco; editing by Kenneth Li Editing by Nick Zieminski)
