According to Axios, U.S. Defense Secretary Hegessy has set a deadline for Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei: he must grant the military unrestricted access to the company’s AI model by Friday evening, or face severe penalties. The report states that during a tense meeting, Hegessy informed Amodei that the Pentagon would either sever ties with Anthropic and designate it a “supply chain security risk,” or invoke the Defense Production Act to compel the company to adapt its models to the military’s requirements. A Defense Department official said before the meeting: “The only reason we’re still negotiating with these people is that we need them, and we need them now. The problem is, they’re just too good.” Anthropic had previously expressed a willingness to adjust its usage policies for the Pentagon but refused to allow its model to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or to develop weapons capable of firing without human intervention. Anthropic’s Claude is currently the only AI model used for the military’s most sensitive tasks.