President Donald Trump said Thursday that he "fired" artificial intelligence company Anthropic "like dogs" after the firm refused to grant the Pentagon full access to its technology, declaring the company is now "in trouble."
In an interview with Politico, Trump described the dispute in blunt terms and claimed he effectively cut ties with the company over its stance.
"Well, I fired Anthropic," he said. "Anthropic is in trouble because I fired [them] like dogs, because they shouldn't have done that."
The president then pointed to what he called the growing strength of America's armed forces under War Secretary Pete Hegseth, arguing that U.S. military readiness is once again unmistakable on the world stage.
"You see how good Pete's doing, and you see how good the military. And so, we have an amazing military," Trump said. "The whole world is seeing that now I built the military in my first term, and I'm using it in my second term."
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, for his part, acknowledged last month that the company has been in "discussions" with the Pentagon, while insisting Anthropic would not accept what he characterized as "unfettered access."
In a statement, Amodei said the company recognizes "that the Department of War, not private companies, makes military decisions."
"We have never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner," the statement said.
At the same time, Amodei argued the company believes there are limited circumstances where AI could be used in ways that "undermine, rather than defend, democratic values," adding, "Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today's technology can safely and reliably do."
Amodei said Anthropic draws the line at providing its services for two categories: mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
"To our knowledge, these two exceptions have not been a barrier to accelerating the adoption and use of our models within our armed forces to date," the CEO wrote, adding that Anthropic cannot "in conscience" agree to the Pentagon's request for full access.
Trump has previously criticized Anthropic as a "radical woke company."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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