AI

When an AI Company Said “No” to the Pentagon — And Paid the Price A Report for Informed Citizens | 28 February 2026 What exactly Happened? On Friday, 27 February 2026, US President Donald Trump ordered every federal agency to stop using the artificial intelligence products of Anthropic, the San Francisco-based company behind the AI assistant Claude. In a Truth Social post, Trump directed every federal agency to “immediately cease” all use of Anthropic’s technology, with a six-month phase-out period granted to agencies like the Pentagon that had already integrated it into their systems. Shortly after, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the Pentagon would formally label Anthropic a “Supply-Chain Risk to National Security” A designation normally reserved for companies associated with foreign adversaries such as China or Russia — barring any military contractor or supplier from conducting commercial activity with the company. What Was the Actual Dispute? The confrontation had been building for months. At its core was a fundamental disagreement about what an AI company is permitted to refuse. Anthropic had been operating under a Pentagon contract worth up to USD 200 million to support defence operations. The company had made clear throughout months of contract negotiations that it would not allow its AI systems to be used for domestic mass surveillance or for direct control of lethal autonomous weapons. The Pentagon, for its part, demanded the right to…