Anthropic, which presents itself as the most safety-forward of the leading AI companies, has been mired in weeks of disagreement with the Pentagon over how the military is allowed to use its large language model, Claude. The Department of Defense (DoD) has integrated Claude into its operations, but has threatened to sever the relationship over what its top brass perceives as roadblocks erected by Anthropic. The DoD struck deals with several major AI firms including Anthropic, Google and OpenAI in July last year, offering them contracts worth up to $200m. Until this week, however, Anthropic’s Claude product was the only model permitted for use in the military’s classified systems. The meeting between Anthropic and the Pentagon is taking place a month after the US military reportedly used Claude to assist in its capture of the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Source: The Guardian February 25, 2026 12:27 UTC