Anthropic’s Pentagon Rejection Draws Support From Google and Amazon Employees

Other big tech companies are reacting to the AI giant’s conflict with the Pentagon.

BY AVA LEVINSON, NEWS WRITER

Dario Amodei. Illustration; Inc; Photo: Getty Images

Anthropic yesterday rejected the Pentagon’s latest offer to edit its contract because of concerns that its AI model could be used for mass surveillance or in fully autonomous weapons. Now, as other tech companies weigh similar deals, employees are urging their leaders to turn them down.

The announcement intensifies a serious dispute between the Pentagon and the AI giant over how its AI system Claude will be used going forward.

The Pentagon has threatened to terminate Anthropic’s $200 million contract if it didn’t approve its AI model to be used “for all lawful purposes.” The company would also be labeled a “supply chain risk.”

Amodei wrote yesterday, “I believe deeply in the existential importance of using AI to defend the United States and other democracies, and to defeat our autocratic adversaries.” 

But while the Pentagon, “not private companies, makes military decisions… in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine rather than defend, democratic values.” 

He labeled mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons as use cases that are “outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do,” and said excluding them from the contract hasn’t stopped “adoption and use of our models within our armed forces to date.”

Amodei concluded that the Pentagon’s “threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.” If the Pentagon ends Anthropic’s contract, the company will “work to enable a smooth transition with another provider.”

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