US War Dept calls Anthropic CEO 'liar' with 'God complex' over AI

The US Department of War lambasted Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, calling him a 'liar' with a 'God complex' for declining to remove AI safeguards for military use, threatening to terminate their partnership over the dispute.

The US Department of War (DOW) sharply criticised the CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, after the US-based artificial intelligence firm declined to remove certain safeguards on its AI systems for military use. US Under Secretary of War Emil Michael accused Amodei of attempting to control military decision-making while calling him a "liar" who has a "God complex". "It's a shame that Dario Amodei is a liar and has a God-complex. He wants nothing more than to try to personally control the US Military and is ok putting our nation's safety at risk. The @DeptofWar will ALWAYS adhere to the law but not bend to whims of any one for-profit tech company," Michael stated in a post on X.

Pentagon Rejects Unlawful Use Claims, Issues Ultimatum

Separately, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell rejected claims that the Department sought to use AI for unlawful purposes. "The Department of War has no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement. This narrative is fake and being peddled by leftists in the media," Parnell stated in a separate post on X.

He stated that the Pentagon's demand was limited to allowing it to use Anthropic's AI model for "all lawful purposes," calling it a "simple, common-sense request" aimed at preventing disruptions to military operations. "We will not let ANY company dictate the terms regarding how we make operational decisions. They have until 5:01 PM ET on Friday to decide. Otherwise, we will terminate our partnership with Anthropic and deem them a supply chain risk for DOW," his post added.

Anthropic Defends Stance on AI Guardrails

The DOW's remarks come after Amodei, in a statement on Thursday, said that the firm would not support certain uses of AI, including mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, citing concerns about democratic values and the current reliability of frontier AI systems.

Amodei stated that despite pressure from the DOW to agree to "any lawful use" of its technology and remove specific safeguards, the company would not change its position. "The Department of War has stated they will only contract with AI companies who accede to "any lawful use" and remove safeguards in the cases mentioned above. They have threatened to remove us from their systems if we maintain these safeguards; they have also threatened to designate us a "supply chain risk"--a label reserved for US adversaries, never before applied to an American company--and to invoke the Defense Production Act to force the safeguards' removal. These latter two threats are inherently contradictory: one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security," the statement read. "Regardless, these threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request," it added.

Anthropic further noted that it remains ready to continue supporting US national security efforts while maintaining what it described as necessary guardrails on the deployment of its AI systems.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)