Pentagon Chief Bans Work With Anthropic, Whose AI Helped Kidnap Maduro

Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth has banned cooperation with Anthropic after the company refused to lift internal restrictions on the use of AI.

Hegseth made the announcement on social media platform X following a post by President Donald Trump demanding that the government immediately stop using the company’s technology, according to Breaking Defense.

“This week, Anthropic delivered a master class in arrogance and betrayal as well as a textbook case of how not to do business with the United States Government or the Pentagon,” the defense chief wrote.

The conflict arose over the Pentagon’s ultimatum to lift restrictions prohibiting the use of Anthropic’s technology to create lethal autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance.

This week, Anthropic delivered a master class in arrogance and betrayal as well as a textbook case of how not to do business with the United States Government or the Pentagon.

Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted…

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) February 27, 2026

According to the order, government agencies are prohibited from working with the AI tool developer, and the Pentagon has begun a six-month period of phasing out their services.

In response, the company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said that the company could not ‘in good conscience’ agree to the Pentagon’s demands. He stressed that abandoning security policies on autonomous lethal operations was contrary to the company’s internal principles.

It should be noted that the US military used artificial intelligence tools from Anthropic during a secret operation to arrest former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.