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, adding that the two sides continue to talk 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. An Anthropic spokesperson said Tuesday’s meeting “continued good-faith conversations about our usage policy to ensure Anthropic can continue to support the government’s national security mission in line with what our models can reliably and responsibly do.”
(Reporting by David Jeans in New York; Writing by Deepa Seetharaman in San Francisco; Editing by Kenneth Li, Nick Zieminski and Daniel Wallis)
