US Military Used Anthropic's Claude AI in Iran Strikes Despite Trump Ban

Summary

The US military reportedly deployed Anthropic's Claude AI model during joint US-Israel strikes on Iran over the weekend, despite President Trump ordering all federal agencies to cease using the technology just hours before the attack began. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal and Axios, military command used Claude for intelligence analysis, target selection, and battlefield simulations during the bombardment that started on Saturday.

The incident highlights the complexity of extracting AI tools from military operations once they become deeply integrated into defense systems. On Friday, Trump denounced Anthropic as a "Radical Left AI company" on Truth Social and ordered an immediate halt to all federal use of Claude. The conflict between the administration and Anthropic escalated after the company objected to the military's use of its AI in a January raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, citing terms of service that prohibit violent applications, weapons development, or surveillance.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Anthropic of "arrogance and betrayal" and demanded unrestricted military access to all of the company's AI models. However, he acknowledged the difficulty of rapid disengagement, allowing a six-month transition period for the military to move to alternative services. OpenAI has already positioned itself as a replacement, with CEO Sam Altman announcing an agreement to provide the Pentagon access to ChatGPT and other tools for use on classified networks.

• OpenAI has moved to fill the void, securing an agreement to provide military AI tools including ChatGPT for classified networks