Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will reportedly give Anthropic until Friday to drop certain guardrails for military use, as reported by Axios. The outlet also reported that CEO Dario Amodei met with Hegseth yesterday as the Pentagon ratcheted up pressure on the AI company to give in to its demands.The makers of Claude have reportedly been offered an ultimatum: Either yield to the government's demands to remove limits for certain military applications, or potentially be forced to tailor its AI model to the government's needs under the Defense Production Act.Anthropic, for its part, has said that while it was willing to adopt certain policies for the Pentagon, it would not allow its model to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for the development of autonomous weapons.Claude is currently the only AI model employed in some of the government's most sensitive work. "The only reason we're still talking to these people is we need them and we need them now. The problem for these guys is they are that good," a defense official told Axios.The Pentagon is reportedly ramping up conversations with OpenAI and Google about using their models for classified work. ChatGPT and Gemini are already approved for unclassified government use. Elon Musk's xAI also recently signed with the DoD to use Grok in classified systems.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-pentagon-has-reportedly-given-anthropic-until-friday-to-let-it-use-claude-as-it-sees-fit-203549467.html?src=rss

Hundreds of employees at Google and OpenAI have signed an open letter urging their companies to stand with Anthropic in its standoff with the Pentagon over military applications for AI tools like Claude.The letter, titled We Will Not Be Divided," calls on the leadership of both companies to put aside their differences and stand together to continue to refuse the Department of War's current demands for permission to use our models for domestic mass surveillance and autonomously killing people without human oversight." These are two lines that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has said should not be crossed by his or any other AI company.As of publication, the letter has over 450 signatures, almost 400 of which come from Google employees and the rest from OpenAI. Currently, roughly 50 percent of all participants have chosen to attach their names to the cause, with the rest remaining anonymous. All are verified as current employees of these companies. The original organizers of the letter aren't Google or OpenAI employees; they say are unaffiliated with any AI company, political party or advocacy group.The open letter is the latest development in the saga between Anthropic and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who threatened to label the company a supply chain risk" if it did not agree to withdraw certain guardrails for classified work. The Pentagon has also been in talks with Google and OpenAI about using their models for classified work, with xAI coming on board earlier this week. The letter argues the government is "trying to divide each company with fear that the other will give in."OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told his employees on Friday that the ChatGPT maker will draw the same red lines as Anthropic, according to an internal memo seen by Axios. He told CNBC on the same day that he doesn't "personally think the Pentagon should be threatening DPA against these companies."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-and-openai-employees-sign-open-letter-in-solidarity-with-anthropic-194957274.html?src=rss