Former President Donald Trump has ordered all United States federal agencies to immediately cease using Anthropic's technology. For agencies like the Department of Defense, which use Anthropic products at all levels, a six-month phase-out period is planned.

Trump stated on the social platform Truth Social that Anthropic made a "catastrophic" mistake in attempting to "coerce" the Department of Defense and impose its terms of service rather than the National Constitution. He also stated that "their selfishness is putting American lives at risk, endangering our military, and jeopardizing our national security."

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth immediately instructed the Department of Defense to list Anthropic as a "supply chain risk" to national security, effective immediately. Any contractor, supplier, or partner doing business with the U.S. military is prohibited from engaging in any commercial activities with Anthropic.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has expressed hope that his company can help de-escalate tensions between Anthropic and the Department of Defense. Altman stated that AI should not be used for mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons and that humans must remain involved in high-risk automated decision-making.

Context

This event raises important questions about the role of AI companies in the defense sector and data sovereignty. For those evaluating on-premise deployments, there are trade-offs between control and costs that AI-RADAR analyzes in detail in the /llm-onpremise section.