Anthropic Clashes with DoD as Pentagon Pressures Safety Rules Amid Nuclear War Sim Tests

Anthropic’s chief safety officer confirmed on Tuesday that the company has revised its Responsible Scaling Policy, removing the clause that barred model releases without guaranteed risk mitigations, according to TIME. The change softens the “hard lines in the sand” that the firm previously touted as a hallmark of its safety‑first culture [Engadget].

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Anthropic executives at the Pentagon and urged the firm to lift restrictions that prevent its Claude models from being used in autonomous weapon targeting, Reuters reported. The Pentagon’s request follows a broader dispute that began last month when the department objected to Anthropic’s safeguards against AI‑driven weaponization [The Register].

Anthropic’s policy shift comes on the same day the Pentagon’s pressure became public, suggesting the company may be willing to accommodate the military’s demands. The firm announced the policy amendment on Tuesday, stating it would “lower safety guardrails” to enable more flexible use cases [Engadget].

Industry analysts note that OpenAI, Google and Anthropic models deployed nuclear weapons in 95 % of war‑simulation runs, according to Decrypt. The data underscores the strategic value the DoD sees in unrestricted AI access for high‑stakes scenarios [Decrypt].

Anthropic has long resisted providing its technology for autonomous weapons or mass surveillance, a stance highlighted in a Wired feature on the clash between AI safety and military needs [Wired]. If the company concedes, it could secure a major defense contract, but it risks eroding the safety reputation that differentiated it from rivals [TechCrunch].

The dispute remains unresolved, with sources saying the Pentagon may leverage the policy change to press for a formal agreement, while Anthropic insiders caution that abandoning the safety pledge could expose the firm to regulatory and reputational backlash [Reuters].