What began as a policy discussion about the risks of AI in warfare has escalated into a high-stakes standoff involving the Trump administration, the Pentagon and AI firm Anthropic.

After the Trump administration cut it off, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told CBS News in an exclusive interview Friday night he wants to work with the military — but only if it addresses the firm's concerns.

The Pentagon clash with Anthropic and Friday's severe response from Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth highlights a growing war over who controls military AI.

The company's Claude chatbot is one of the few AI systems cleared for use in classified settings. But a standoff between Anthropic and the Trump administration is putting its government work at risk.

President Donald Trump has ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic technology after the company’s unusually public dispute with the Pentagon over artificial intelligence safety.

Debates have long swirled around AI and its use in weapons targeting, the idea of no human involvement still an uncomfortable one.

The dispute stems from the AI startup's refusal to remove safeguards that would prevent its technology from being used to conduct surveillance in US.

The Department of Health and Human Services has told employees they can no longer use Claude, a generative AI tool from Anthropic, as President Trump seeks to blacklist the company from the federal government.

The Pentagon wants Anthropic to remove some of the limits on how Claude can be used by the U.S. military.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Thursday that the DOD has "no interest" in using Anthropic's models for fully autonomous weapons or to conduct mass surveillance of Americans, which he noted is illegal. He emphasized the agency wants the company to agree to allow its models to be used for "all lawful purposes."

AI competition heats up as OpenAI and Anthropic form consulting partnerships to deploy AI at scale.