USA Pentagon - Department of War Demands All Ai Control
February 28, 2026•446 words
There's a ticking clock in Washington, and it's about to force a choice between ethics and empire.
By Friday at 5:01 PM, the AI company Anthropic has to decide: hand over its technology to the U.S. military for "all lawful purposes," or get blacklisted from government work forever. A $200 million contract hangs in the balance. So, do AI companies still have power to say no to the USA Government or does the USA Government have complete control over Ai companies?
The Pentagon wants Claude, Anthropic's AI model, integrated into military systems. All of them. Including, autonomous weapons and mass surveillance tools. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made it personal after a tense meeting with Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei. Hegseth demanded, change your company policies, or we'll designate you a "supply chain risk."
That label is reserved for foreign adversaries. For an American AI lab, it's career-ending.
Here's is the issue Anthropic has concerns on:
No autonomous killing machines (AI deciding to fire without human oversight)
No mass surveillance of U.S. citizens and permanent residence
Anthropic's reasoning? It's not moral and major technical issues. Large language models make mistakes. They hallucinate. They fail unpredictably. Do you really want Ai robots, drones, planes, and missiles deciding who lives and dies in a combat zone?
The CEO Amodei puts it simply: the company "cannot in good conscience" comply, it is unethical and unpredictable. He's even offered to help the Pentagon switch to competitors.
The Secretary of War, Hegseth, wants full Ai operational flexibility. In war, you can't pause to check with some AI company's legal team. Private companies shouldn't get to "rewrite" what's ethical or not.
Trust is completely broken on both sides Ai companies and the Trump government. Anthropic doesn't trust the Pentagon to use AI responsibly and ethically.
The Trump administration most likely will invoke the Defense Production Act, essentially seizing Ai companies technology for national security. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's Grok is already approved for classified military and mass surveillance on American citizens, and OpenAI's been approached by the Trump administration.
As Dr. Yuval Noah Harari exposes something uncomfortable about where we're heading. AI safety isn't just about preventing rogue superintelligence anymore. It's about whether companies can maintain ethical boundaries when the most powerful military countries in the world demands access and full control.
The Pentagon sees ethical Ai regulation guardrails as obstacles to dominance. Anthropic sees them as the only thing standing between AI and catastrophe.