WorldPosted at: Oct 5 2026 11:47PM


US Defence Department stops using Anthropic after blacklisting company

Washington, Oct 5 (UNI) The US Department of Defence has stopped using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence tools, a department official told the BBC, months after the company was designated a national security supply-chain risk.
“The Pentagon has ceased the use of Anthropic products,” the official said.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk in February and ordered the department to phase out its technology by late August.
However, people familiar with the matter told the BBC that Anthropic’s Claude models were still being used as recently as last week for research, analysis and intelligence gathering, as well as military operations involving Iran.
The sources, including former US defence officials and contractors who have worked with the Pentagon on AI, said Claude had been considered an important tool for processing large volumes of information.
Anthropic declined to comment on the Pentagon’s statement.
It is unclear why the department has now ended all use of the company’s technology.
Anthropic’s systems had been used by the US government and military since 2024 and were among the first advanced AI tools deployed in classified government work.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon pressed the company to remove safety restrictions from Claude and provide the military with unrestricted access. Anthropic refused, citing concerns about mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
Hegseth subsequently designated the company a “national security supply-chain risk”, a designation typically associated with companies based in countries considered threats to the US.
Anthropic called the decision “unprecedented and unlawful” and has sued the Trump administration in an attempt to overturn it.
As the legal dispute continued, the Pentagon signed contracts with other technology companies including Google, xAI and OpenAI.
Two people familiar with AI use at the department said OpenAI tools have become more widely used in some military units in recent months.
Claude was also integrated into the Pentagon’s Maven Smart System, operated by defence technology company Palantir, according to several sources.
Maven is a major platform for organising intelligence and other data. Lauren Kahn, a senior research analyst at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology and a former defence official, said Claude’s integration into Maven would have made it difficult to remove quickly.
“Once they become integrated it can be painful to remove them,” she said, adding that the delay showed that AI systems were not simply “plug and play”.
A former senior US defence official said there had been concern about moving away from Anthropic and towards other AI systems when Hegseth ordered the company’s technology to be phased out.
Hegseth set a six-month deadline on February 27, one day before the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran.
One source said Pentagon employees continued using Claude, including its Mythos models, throughout the dispute.
Several sources said Claude was used for intelligence gathering and analysis through Maven.
Analysts and defence officials use the platform to organise visual data including satellite imagery and drone footage, which can then be processed by Claude and other large language models for tasks including identifying potential military targets.
A source who was given a demonstration of Maven by Palantir earlier this year said officials also used the technology when preparing one-page intelligence briefs for senior commanders.
The platform is also used by some US allies to share intelligence with the Trump administration.
The dispute comes as relations between Anthropic and the White House appear to be improving.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met Trump twice at the White House last week.
Following one of the meetings, Amodei said he remained concerned about the risks posed by AI but suggested the company could work with the administration to address them.
“How we address those risks is still under discussion,” Amodei told reporters, adding that “if we work with the president, we can win safely”.
Trump praised Amodei after the remarks, describing him as “great” and “fantastic”.
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