Trump fires Anthropic 'like dogs' as Pentagon negotiations quietly resume over military AI dispute

Trump Says He Fired Anthropic 'Like Dogs'

President Donald Trump took credit for decisive action against Anthropic on Thursday, as the AI company still waits to be formally designated as a "supply chain risk" by the Pentagon. And he used one of his favorite phrases in the process. “Well, I fired Anthropic. Anthropic is in trouble because I fired [them] like dogs, because they shouldn’t have done that,†Trump said in a new interview with Politico. Trump has a long history of saying that such-and-such person died like a dog (ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) or lied like a dog (Ted Cruz) or "cheated on him like a dog" (Kristen Stewart). And while it often makes no sense, that's typically his definitive statement on the matter. The question is whether we should read much into it this time. The tech world is waiting to see how the Pentagon's battle with Anthropic shakes out, given the stakes for the future of AI. The Department of Defense had demanded that Anthropic drop guardrails on its AI model Claude that prohibit its use in mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. That didn't go over well with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who wrote on X that he was designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk. That designation, at least according to Hegseth, means that other businesses that work with the U.S. government can't work with Anthropic, a move that's been described as a form of corporate murder. Anthropic instantly promised to file suit if the Pentagon was going to do something so drastic. But Anthropic has yet to acknowledge being given formal notice, leaving everything in a state of limbo. Bloomberg reported Thursday that it had given the company notice, but the source is an anonymous official who "didn’t say when or by what means the Pentagon informed Anthropic of the designation." The latest reporting from the Financial Times and Bloomberg indicates Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is currently in talks with the Pentagon, suggesting that there could still be some form of agreement that's reached in the near future. The discussions are being held with Emil Michael, Under-Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, a man who last week tweeted that Amodei was a "liar" with a "god-complex." So it remains to be seen how that will go, especially since it seems unlikely Anthropic can compromise after making such a big deal about ethics. On the other hand, Anthropic's corporate survival is on the line. And it's not like the company is some bastion of moral behavior right now. The U.S. military is currently using Claude to help choose targets in the bombing of Iran, according to the Wall Street Journal. Specifically, the military is using Claude as it's embedded into Palantir's Maven Smart System, according to the Washington Post. From the Post: As planning for a potential strike in Iran was underway, Maven, powered by Claude, suggested hundreds of targets, issued precise location coordinates, and prioritized those targets according to importance, said two of the people. The pairing of Maven and Claude has created a tool that is speeding the pace of the campaign, reducing Iran’s ability to counterstrike and turning weeks-long battle planning into real-time operations, said one of the people. The AI tools also evaluate a strike after it is initiated, the person said. It's unclear whether the U.S. or Israel was the country that bombed a school in Minab, Iran, that killed 168 people, most of them children. But there's speculation that it was the U.S. (Minab is in the south, territory the U.S. is primarily bombing) and that they could have been using Claude. The school was built on an old Revolutionary Guard base that closed about 15 years ago, according to NBC News. Did the U.S. military use AI to choose the target, and did it have old information that it failed to properly check? Plenty of people are talking about that possibility right now, and it all seems too plausible.

Trump says he fired Anthropic 'like dogs' as negotiations with Pentagon reportedly restart

Donald Trump boasted about severing the ties between the US military and Anthropic the same day multiple reports said that negotiations between the Department of Defense and the AI startup had resumed. "Well, I fired Anthropic. Anthropic is in trouble because I fired [them] like dogs, because they shouldn't have done that," Trump told Politico. Trump on Friday ordered the entire federal government to cease using Anthropic's tech, which the state and treasury departments have begun, according to their respective heads. The termination may not be permanent, though. Negotiations have restarted between the Pentagon and Anthropic over the military's use of the company's AI and the contract between the two, according to the Financial Times and Bloomberg. Anthropic's products, which include the popular Claude chatbot and coding assistant, are integrated into Palantir's Maven system, a newly vital tool of military intelligence that was used in recent strikes on Iran, according to The Washington Post. Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, has been discussing the Pentagon's contract with Emil Michael, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and a former Uber executive, per Bloomberg. The two strongly dislike one another, the New York Times reported. On Thursday, Amodei sent a scorching message to his employees disparaging the Trump administration and rival OpenAI, which late last week jumped into the void left by the government and Anthropic's breakup and announced its own deal with the military. Amodei called OpenAI CEO Sam Altman "mendacious" and said Altman's claims of that the Pentagon would abide by safeguards amounted to nothing more than "safety theater". From his end, Altman acceded to employees in an internal message this week that the company would have no control over how the military used OpenAI's technology. Anthropic last week refused a deal with the Pentagon over concerns its model could be used for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, declared the company a "supply-chain risk" in response, a designation that prevents all government contractors from using its technology and which has never been used before against a US company. Silicon Valley, including OpenAI, has backed Anthropic in the fight over the designation. Amodei said his company will sue over the label. The retributive blacklisting of the company could cause significant financial harm if formally enacted. Anthropic's most recent round of financing, some $60bn, is in jeopardy over the fracas with the Pentagon, per Axios. As the defense secretary vowed punitive measures against Anthropic, his agency also announced a deal with OpenAI to use its technology for military operations in its classified network. The timing as well as questions over ethics elicited backlash that propelled Claude's app to the top of the download charts in the US. In the following days, Altman said he would amend the agreement with the department and admitted his company's conduct appeared "opportunistic and sloppy".