Pentagon Summons Anthropic CEO as Defense Secretary Threatens to Banish AI Company

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon after the AI company imposed restrictions on how its models could be used by the U.S. military — a confrontation that erupted after an Anthropic model reportedly declined to assist with target identification during the El Mencho raid in Mexico. Hegseth has threatened to banish Anthropic from all Department of Defense contracts if the company does not loosen its safety guardrails for military applications. The dispute pits the Pentagon's demand for unrestricted AI capabilities against Anthropic's insistence on maintaining ethical limits, and could reshape how Silicon Valley's most advanced AI firms engage with the U.S. national security apparatus.