Anthropic has reached an impasse with the United States Department of War regarding the military's demand for unrestricted access to the AI firm's technology. As the Pentagon's Friday deadline for compliance nears, more than 300 Google employees and over 60 OpenAI staff have signed an open letter calling on their leadership to back Anthropic and reject this unilateral request. The company has specifically opposed using AI for domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons systems.

The letter urges executives to "put aside their differences and stand together" in supporting the boundaries Anthropic has set. It argues, "They’re trying to divide each company with fear that the other will give in. That strategy only works if none of us know where the others stand." Signatories are asking Google and OpenAI to uphold Anthropic's red lines against mass surveillance and fully automated weaponry, stating, "We hope our leaders will put aside their differences and stand together to continue to refuse the Department of War’s current demands."

While company leaders have not formally responded, informal comments indicate sympathy for Anthropic's stance. In a Friday CNBC interview, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman remarked that he doesn’t "personally think the Pentagon should be threatening DPA against these companies." A company spokesperson also confirmed OpenAI shares Anthropic's opposition to autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.

Google DeepMind has not issued an official statement, but Chief Scientist Jeff Dean individually expressed opposition to government mass surveillance on X, writing, "Mass surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment and has a chilling effect on freedom of expression. Surveillance systems are prone to misuse for political or discriminatory purposes."

Currently, the military can use X’s Grok, Google’s Gemini, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT for unclassified tasks and is negotiating with Google and OpenAI for classified use. Although Anthropic has an existing Pentagon partnership, it insists its AI not be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei that non-compliance could lead to the company being declared a "supply chain risk" or subject to the Defense Production Act. In a Thursday statement, Amodei held firm, noting, "These latter two threats are inherently contradictory: one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security. Regardless, these threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request."