Trump orders shutdown of Anthropic tools

In a post on the social media platform Truth Social, Donald Trump wrote:

“I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!”

The decision comes amid a weeks-long dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon over the terms governing the military use of artificial intelligence. The Pentagon has granted the company a six month transition period to gradually phase out its products already embedded in defense platforms.

As noted by Al Jazeera, the dispute arose after Anthropic refused to accept Pentagon contract language that, according to senior executives at the startup, could allow restrictions on the use of AI for mass surveillance of citizens and in fully autonomous weapons to be bypassed.

Meanwhile, Anthropic’s competitor OpenAI has reached an agreement with the Pentagon.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said:

“Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems. The Department of Defense agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement.”

Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that Microsoft, NVIDIA and Anthropic formed a strategic AI partnership.