Engadget Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic a deadline of 5:01 PM on Friday to drop safety safeguards on its Claude AI system, threatening to cancel a $200 million contract and label the firm a supply‑chain risk. CEO Dario Amodei responded that Anthropic cannot in good conscience comply, insisting on keeping the safeguards while remaining willing to support the military. The Pentagon’s request would allow Claude to be used for mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, a use case Anthropic refuses. The standoff raises questions about AI safety, government contracts, and potential alternatives such as Grok, Google’s Gemini, and OpenAI.
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