Pentagon Confirms It Has Dropped Anthropic's AI Tools After Standoff Over Military Guardrails

The Pentagon confirms it has ceased all use of Anthropic's AI tools after a standoff over military guardrails, months after Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth branded the company a national security supply-chain risk in February with a late-August phase-out deadline. Anthropic's Claude, including its Mythos models, was used as recently as last week—embedded in Palantir's Maven Smart System for research, intelligence gathering, and operations against Iran. Anthropic refused demands to remove safety guardrails over surveillance and autonomous weapons concerns, and is suing the Trump administration as the Pentagon pivots to OpenAI, xAI, and Google.

• The Pentagon says it has ceased all use of Anthropic's AI tools, telling the BBC in a Monday statement that it 'has ceased the use of Anthropic products' months after Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the company a national security supply-chain risk in February with a phase-out deadline of late August.
• Anthropic's Claude, including its Mythos models, was still being used by the Pentagon as recently as last week for research, intelligence gathering, and military operations against Iran, embedded in Palantir-operated Maven Smart System, the department's primary platform for organising intelligence like satellite imagery and drone footage.
• The dispute began when the Pentagon pressed Anthropic to remove Claude's safety guardrails for unfettered military access; Anthropic refused, citing mass surveillance and autonomous weapons concerns, and has sued the Trump administration calling the designation 'unprecedented and unlawful' as the Pentagon shifts toward OpenAI, xAI, and Google, while Trump met Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei twice at the White House last week.