The Secretary of Defense summoned Anthropic’s Amodei for the use of Claude’s troops

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon on Tuesday morning to discuss the military use of Claude, according to reports from the Pentagon. Axios.

The meeting comes as the Pentagon threatens to declare Anthropic “Supply chain risk” — a symbol reserved for foreign adversaries — after the AI ​​company refused to allow the Department of Defense to use its technology to spy on Americans and develop weapons that fire without humans.

Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the DOD last summer, and Claude was there he says which was used during the January 3 special security crackdown that led to the impeachment of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, which brought the conflict between the two sides into the open.

A source told Axios that Hegseth is giving Amodei a choice: play football or be fired. It’s not clear if he’s lying – getting rid of Anthropic would be a very important task. But the risks are real: risking tax credits could destroy the Anthropic partnership and force other Pentagon partners to abandon Claude entirely.