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Anthropic was the Pentagon’s choice for AI. Now it’s banned and experts are worried

admin — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 23:46:46 +0000

Dario Amodei, chief executive officer of Anthropic, at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.

Ruhani Kaur | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Last August, Pentagon technology chief Emil Michael, a former Uber executive and attorney, took on the added role of overseeing the Defense Department’s artificial intelligence portfolio. A month earlier, Anthropic had been awarded a $200 million DOD contract that expanded its work with the agency.

“I said, ‘I just want to see the contracts,'” Michael told the All-In Podcast on Friday, reflecting on his early days managing the AI portfolio. “You know, the old lawyer in me.”

Michael’s request kicked off a months-long review process that culminated in the Defense Department officially banning Anthropic’s technology last week, leaving the military without its hand-picked AI models to operate in the most sensitive environments. Anthropic was booted for demanding that its AI not be used for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance.

In an extraordinary move, the DOD designated Anthropic a supply chain risk, a label that’s historically only been applied to foreign adversaries. It will require defense vendors and contractors to certify that they don’t use the company’s models in their work with the Pentagon.

Anthropic sued the Trump administration on Monday, calling the government’s actions “unprecedented and unlawful,” and claiming that they are “harming Anthropic irreparably,” putting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts in jeopardy.

The DOD’s sudden reversal came as a shock to many officials in Washington who viewed Anthropic’s models as superior — they were the first to be deployed in the agency’s classified networks — and championed the company’s ability to integrate with existing defense contractors like Palantir. The decision was all the more puzzling since the Trump administration had threatened during negotiations to invoke the Defense Production Act, which could have forced Anthropic to grant the military access to its technology.

“I don’t know how those two things can both be true in reality,” said Mark Dalton, a retired Navy rear admiral who now leads technology and cybersecurity policy at R Street, a think tank in Washington, D.C. “Something is so necessary that you need to invoke DPA and so harmful that you put a designation on it that’s reserved for foreign adversaries.”

Defense experts like Dalton expressed concern about the government’s decision. Not only does it set a troubling precedent, they argue, but it also means the administration is banishing a key technology vendor that’s been lauded for its diligence with respect to AI safety, tough rhetoric against China and its entrepreneurial chops, becoming one of the fastest-growing tech startups in the U.S.

Former DOD official Brad Carson, who’s now co-founder and president of AI policy nonprofit Americans for Responsible Innovation, said the move is particularly troubling for military personnel, who have come to rely on Anthropic’s Claude models. An ex-Navy intelligence officer who served in Iraq, Carson said he’s talked to a number of retired officers who told him that “warfighters are not happy about it.”

“You’re not so excited if you’re in the military,” said Carson, who worked in President Obama’s Defense Department until 2016 and before that was deployed to Iraq while in the Army and also served two terms in Congress as a Democrat in Oklahoma. “They view Claude as being a better product, the most reliable, with the most user friendly outputs they can assimilate into planning.”

Anthropic declined to provide a comment for the story.

According to a senior department official at the DOD, vendors will not be allowed to insert themselves “into the chain of command by restricting the lawful use of a critical capability.”

“It is the military’s sole responsibility to ensure our warfighters have the tools they need to win in a crisis, without interference from corporate policies,” the official said.

CNBC spoke to 17 AI policy experts, former Palantir and Anthropic employees, tech analysts and researchers about Anthropic’s critical role in the Defense Department and what comes next. Several of the people asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak on the matter.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei founded the San Francisco-based company in 2021 alongside his sister, Daniela Amodei, and a handful of other researchers. The group had defected from OpenAI, before the launch of ChatGPT, over concerns about the company’s direction and attitude toward safety. They spent years carefully constructing Anthropic’s reputation as a firm that was more dedicated to responsible AI deployment.

Anthropic launched its family of AI models, known as Claude, in March 2023, a few months after ChatGPT hit the market and quickly went viral. In the three years since introducing Claude, Anthropic has raised billions of dollars of capital, en route to a $380 billion valuation.

The company is now under immense pressure to justify that price tag and has been forced to rapidly commercialize its technology in an effort to keep pace with OpenAI and other rivals like Google.

Partnering with AWS and Palantir

While OpenAI was enthralling consumers, Anthropic found quick success selling to large enterprises, including the DOD. It’s an area Amodei started focusing on early, recognizing the business and societal importance of working closely with the government and military and helping to establish principals for safe uses of a technology that has the power to bring about potential catastrophes, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The company began building relationships and making inroads with officials in Washington, and Amodei was among the few AI industry executives invited to meet with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in May 2023.

Around that same time, Anthropic turned to a familiar tech partner that could help it prosper among D.C. technologists: Amazon Web Services.

Claude became available within AWS’ Bedrock service that year, which helped it gain traction within the government tech community, multiple sources said. Federal agencies could begin experimenting with Anthropic’s models because they were accessible within AWS’ government-sanctioned environment.

Amazon has been one of Anthropic’s largest financial backers since 2023, investing a total of $8 billion in the startup.

As pilot projects got underway, many federal employees found that Claude produced more compelling results than other models from companies like OpenAI and Meta, the sources said. Claude could provide step-by-step reasons for why it would derive an answer or complete a task, which was crucial for federal agencies that require strong auditing and verification, sources said.

And since Anthropic had prioritized building for enterprise customers, the company’s user experience was especially suitable for desktop computers, the people said. With a strong AI model and an intuitive user interface, Anthropic began to earn credibility with federal workers, sowing the seeds for a major partnership with Palantir, a software and services provider that counts on government contracts for about 60% of its U.S. revenue.

Anthropic’s government push was assisted by its head of global affairs, Michael Sellitto, who led cybersecurity policy at the National Security from 2015 through 2018, and former AWS executive Thiyagu Ramasamy, the head of the company’s public sector business.

In a LinkedIn post last week, Ramasamy, who joined in early 2025, expressed his concern about the Pentagon’s actions.

“Today, I mourn for the customers I have deep respect for,” Ramasamy wrote. “They were moving at a pace I couldn’t have imagined across my two decades in this industry, and now it comes to a halt over a weekend. Down, but not out.”

And in a legal filing on Monday tied to Anthropic’s lawsuit, Ramasamy said he has a team of 15 people working with federal government customers, and the company’s public sector business was projected to reach multiple billions of dollars in annual recurring revenue within five years.

“The Government’s Actions are an existential threat to all of this,” Ramasamy said in the filing.

Sellitto and Ramasamy didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In November of 2024, shortly before Ramasamy’s arrival, Anthropic and Palantir announced a partnership with AWS that would allow U.S. intelligence and defense agencies to access Claude. Some Anthropic staffers were upset about the deal when it was announced, a former employee said, adding that it prompted “many big Slack threads” and became a point of lingering tension within the company.

Having Palantir as a partner helped Anthropic build direct lines with the DOD and fast tracked its integration into the highest-level, classified projects. The partnerships were crucial in helping Anthropic become the first model company to officially deploy across classified networks, said Lauren Kahn, a senior research analyst at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

“The fact that Anthropic is able to basically play nice with others like Palantir, AWS, Google, etc., specifically Palantir,” she said, “is extremely valuable.”

In its July 2025 release announcing its $200 million defense contract, Anthropic said it had “accelerated mission impact across U.S. defense workflows with partners like Palantir.” Anthropic said its technology helped the government’s defense and intelligence organizations “rapidly process and analyze vast amounts of complex data.”

A month after winning the Pentagon contract, Anthropic partnered with the U.S. General Services Administration to bring its AI models to other participating agencies for $1 dollar a year.

Breaking up

But by that point, Anthropic’s relationship with the government was beginning to sour.

President Trump had been sworn into office that January, and Amodei wasn’t a fan, having once likened the commander in chief to a “feudal warlord” in a since deleted Facebook post, according to Fortune.

Other industry executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, had been photographed rubbing elbows with Trump at the White House, but Amodei was conspicuously absent. He didn’t attend Trump’s inauguration last year.

Amodei told staffers earlier this month that the administration doesn’t like Anthropic because it hasn’t donated or offered “dictator-style praise to Trump,” according to a report from The Information.

He apologized for the tone of those remarks in a statement on Thursday, writing that they were written after a “difficult day for the company” and do not “reflect my careful or considered views.”

Amodei has also drawn the ire of David Sacks, the the White House AI and crypto czar, who has accused Anthropic of supporting “woke AI,” largely for its positions on regulation.

“This feels to me like a dispute that is about politics and personalities,” Michael Horowitz, a senior fellow for technology and innovation at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in an interview. “It’s masquerading as a policy dispute.”

A DOD official told CNBC that the decision is not based on personality or politics but rather about “the military being able to use technology for all lawful purposes.”

By the time the Trump administration blacklisted Anthropic, the startup’s tools had been widely adopted across government agencies. A transition is already underway, as groups including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Treasury Department and the State Department have confirmed they are moving off of Claude.

But that process is especially complicated within the DOD, in part because the U.S. is actively carrying out a military operation in Iran. Anthropic’s models have been used to support that operation, even after it was blacklisted, as CNBC previously reported.

Amodei said in a statement on Thursday that Anthropic’s “most important priority” is making sure American warfighters and national security experts aren’t deprived of tools in the middle of “major combat operations.” The company has committed to offering its models at a nominal cost with continuing support for engineers “for as long as is necessary to make that transition, and for as long as we are permitted to do so.”

Moving away from Anthropic toward a new vendor will take the DOD time and comes at a significant cost in terms of efficiency, said Jacquelyn Schneider, a Hargrove Hoover fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, in an interview.

“You’re not going to walk away from technologies that are deeply embedded in your wartime processes right before you go to war,” Schneider said.

WATCH: Why the U.S. Defense Department blacklist of Anthropic is so unprecedented

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The 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards’ Harry Potter Problem

admin — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 02:06:43 +0000

In January, my colleague Kelly Jensen wrote about the Unbearable Whiteness of the Goodreads Choice Awards: only 11% of winners were written by authors of color, and that was even worse in the first five years of the award. Queer books haven’t fared much better, though that had been shifting in the last handful of years. In 2025, though, it feels like we’re going backwards.

The first thing I noticed is that, as far as I can tell, there are no queer romances in the Romance or Romantasy categories. Let me know if I missed any, but they appear to all be M/F romances about cis straight people. Last year, we had The Pairing by Casey McQuiston in Romance and Faebound by Saara El-Arifi along with two other queer books in Romantasy.

The next thing I was was that self-described TERF JK Rowling is on the long list this year, in the form of the new Harry Potter audiobook. Rowling now seems to devote more of her time to trying to strip trans people of their rights than she does writing, so I hardly feel the need to explain why it’s disappointing to see her books spotlighted: books she directly makes money from, which she sinks into anti-trans organizations.

It’s not just the Harry Potter audiobook in the running, though. In fact, there’s never been a more prominent celebration of the series and its author in the awards. There are also three different books based on Harry Potter fanfiction on the long list: Alchemised by SenLinYu, Rose in Chains by Julie Soto, and The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley. Alchemized is featured in three categories: Romantasy, Audiobooks, and Debut Novels.

There is some debate on the ethics of Harry Potter fanfiction as well as getting it published, but these books have all used references to the source material in their marketing. They are keeping Harry Potter relevant, which boosts the brand and gives the creator more attention and money. By referencing Harry Potter while promoting the book, they also are advertising it and JK Rowling.

The one-two punch of the lack of queer romance books and the celebration of Harry Potter in this year’s awards makes a statement, regardless of the inclusion of some queer and trans books, most of them in the speculative and YA categories. (A few of the books by and about trans and nonbinary people on the long lists include Woodworking by Emily St. James, Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto, and You Weren’t Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White.)

There are plenty of good reasons to ignore the Goodreads Choice Awards, from the homogeneity of the winners to the fact that the site is owned by Goodreads. This year just adds another reason, if you also don’t want to promote JK Rowling’s branding.

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Adams admin hires foreign firms to run NYC’s Downtown Heliport, raising security concerns: Not ‘a wise choice’

admin — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 06:31:59 +0000

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has chosen two foreign firms to run the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, raising concerns in some national-security circles because the president’s Marine One chopper uses it.

The city Economic Development Corporation selected Downtown Skyport LLC — a partnership between Skyports Infrastructure, a UK-based firm and the operator of the London Heliport, and France’s Groupe ADP, which operates Paris’ three airports, to run the city-owned downtown heliport.

The Downtown Manhattan Heliport is used by Marine One and by US military and federal law-enforcement officials.

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has chosen two foreign firms to run the Downtown Manhattan Heliport. ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA

The city Economic Development Corporation selected Downtown Skyport LLC to run the cityk-owned downtown heliport. Angel Chevrestt

“I don’t think it’s a wise choice, given the sensitive activity that happens there. I’m surprised,” said Jonathan Wackrow, who served for 14 years as a special agent in the US Secret Service, to The Post.

“It raises a red flag. It’s odd and should certainly be questioned. Any critical infrastructure should not be operated by a foreign entity.”

He claimed foreigners will have access to national security information and asked, “Where will this information go?”

There were at least two attempts to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump during the election campaign.

The city Franchise and Review Committee is expected to approve the contract after a public hearing Monday.

Wackrow, who served in the security detail for former President Barack Obama, said the Downtown Heliport was an important post after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, providing access from Pier 6 in the Battery near Ground Zero.

The new European operators will replace Manhattan-based Saker Aviation Services.

The Downtown Manhattan Heliport is used by Marine One and by US military and federal law-enforcement officials. Paul Martinka

The current operator faced controversy last year after it was revealed that William Wachtel, chairman of the board of Saker Aviation, is law partners with Morris Missry, a board member at the EDC.

Downtown Skyport won the subsequent contract in a competitive bidding process.

Both of its companies have developed the use of quieter electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, a top priority of Mayor Adams.

Helicopter noise has long been a major bane of New York City residents, with 59,000 complaints recorded last year.

EDC officials defended the selection of European-based Downtown Skyport.

“NYCEDC is proud to welcome Downtown Skyport as the new operator of the Downtown Manhattan Heliport,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Andrew Kimball in a statement.

“With their expertise in global transportation, Downtown Skyport is perfectly positioned to advance the Adams Administration’s vision of transforming DMH into a hub for cutting-edge mobility. By integrating eVTOL technology — a quieter, greener alternative to traditional helicopters — and facilitating maritime freight and last-mile deliveries, this initiative will not only reduce truck traffic but bring huge quality of life improvements for all New Yorkers,” he said.

The city Franchise and Review Committee is expected to approve the contract after a public hearing Monday. David McGlynn

As part of the bidding process, EDC officials said it checked with appropriate federal agencies on the possibility of hiring an operator with a parent entity based in foreign countries.

These reviews found that there would be no security risks posed to Marine One — or any other official US government helicopter — landing at the heliport, the EDC said.

The agreement will provide for a five-year $14.7 million contract from February 2025 to January 2030, with three five-year options for renewal through 2045.

Downtown Skyport would initially pay the city a minimum of $2.75 million to operate the airport, increasing to 4% annually or 42.5% of gross, whichever is greater, according to the terms of the contract reviewed by Crain’s New York Business.

New York City remains the owner of the heliport. Operations are managed through a concession agreement, which EDC can terminate at its discretion.

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11 Queer Books to Vote for in the Goodreads Choice Awards

admin — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 00:34:16 +0000

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I shared a list of queer adult books to vote for in the opening round of the Goodreads Choice Awards with the intention of sharing the YA books to vote for this week…except now the opening round has closed. Whoops! Instead, I have a list of the queer books still available to vote for in the final round, which closes December 1st. (Excluding TJ Klune’s book because I still feel weird about his “cozy” fantasy novel being inspired by the horrific history of residential schools and the ’60s scoop. If you’re interested, this Reddit thread has a good discussion about the topic.)

I’m disappointed The Pairing by Casey McQuiston didn’t make it to the final round because I thought it had the best chance since the author is well-known. It’s also my new favourite romance novel. Alas!

I’ve also included all the queer YA books that were in the opening round, in case you’re curious. Now, onto the queer books in the final round!

Fiction:

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (also in Debut Novel)

It’s always nice when one of the biggest literary fiction titles of the year is queer. This is a bestseller that comes highly recommended by authors like Tommy Orange, Lauren Groff, John Green, Clint Smith, and more. It follows Cyrus, a twentysomething queer poet who has been numbing his pain with drugs and alcohol. His mother was killed when her plane was shot down over Tehran in a senseless act of violence by the U.S. military. His father recently died of a heart attack. As he becomes sober, Cyrus goes looking for meaning, and he finds it by researching martyrs. When he hears about an artist dying of cancer in an exhibition at a museum, he is determined to meet her. —Danika Ellis

Fantasy:

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer

Inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lost Story follows two boys who once went missing in the West Virginia woods. Now, 15 years later, one lives as an artist with no memory of what happened in the six months they were gone, while the other works as a missing persons investigator to help other lost children. Rafe has kept Jeremy in the dark for all these years about what happened to them all those years ago in a magical land full of wonder and danger. But now that another girl has gone missing, the two will have to reconnect and face their shared past as they venture into a magical land once again. —Rachel Brittain

Horror:

We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer (also in Debut Novel)

The story starts unassumingly enough. A young woman and her long-term partner purchase a house, intending to fix it up and flip it. One evening, the doorbell rings. It’s a man who allegedly grew up in the house, and he wants to show his family around. Eve lets them in…and soon finds it impossible to get rid of them. As the night goes on, a sense of creeping dread builds, and things go slowly but wildly off the rails. Is Eve losing it? Overreacting? Slipping into an alternate dimension? Terrified as I was, I nevertheless made it to the end and still don’t know. —Steph Auteri

Also in this category: Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Debut Novel:

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

This is a romantasy-mystery that has been all over TikTok since its release in the UK — and now it’s available in the States! Thank goodness, because it is such a delightful romp. It’s a magical murder mystery set aboard a cruise ship containing the emperor of Concordia and the twelve heirs of the provinces. Each of the heirs has a special secret magic unique to them, except for Ganymedes Piscero, the disappointment of his family. Which is too bad because when someone on the ship starts murdering the magical heirs, Ganymedes has no way of protecting himself and not much of a chance of discovering the killer without the help of magic. Can he solve it on his own before it’s too late? —Liberty Hardy

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly

This award-winning book follows siblings Greta and Valdin as they contend with an eccentric, multiracial family, queerness, and just trying to figure it all out. Valdin is doing superficially well after having been dumped by his boyfriend a year ago—his colleagues are only occasionally weird about his Maaori heritage, and he has intermittent sad sex with a friend—when work sends him from New Zealand to Argentina, where his ex is. Meanwhile, Greta has her own bubbling sadness. She’s experiencing unrequited pining, and her family is in a state made even more perplexing by her brother’s sudden, secretive move to South America. —Erica Ezeifedi

Young Adult Fantasy:

Don’t Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews

Andrew and Thomas bond over their shared love of twisted fairytale stories, which Andrew writes endlessly. But then Thomas begins acting strangely, showing up with blood on his clothes. Andrew discovers he’s been battling monsters at night, the same monsters that Andrew invented in his stories and Thomas drew. The two of them battle every night to stop the monsters from hurting anyone else, which brings them even closer into an obsessive, toxic relationship. But the monsters are getting stronger, and Andrew begins to wonder if they only way to stop them is to kill their creator. —Danika Ellis

Young Adult Fiction:

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

Princess Gwendoline and future lord Arthur have been betrothed for their whole lives, and neither of them is happy about it. They’re given a summer to bond at Camelot before their wedding. In short order, Gwen catches Art kissing a boy, and Art finds out Gwen is hiding a secret crush on a lady knight. They realize they can put aside their hatred for each other and instead work together to get what they want. But they’ll get into plenty of messes along the way. —Susie Dumond

Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

After the hit that was Ace of Spades, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé is back with more UK-based dark academia. This time, following Sade Hussein, who is starting her third year of high school at a prestigious boarding school. But then her roommate Elizabeth disappears — and people suspect Sade had something to do with it. Then another student is found dead. As she tries to clear her name, she finds out that there’s something really funky going on at Alfred Nobel Academy.

Also in this category: Heartstopper: Volume Five by Alice Oseman

Memoir:

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul

RuPaul had already made a name for himself as a premier drag queen and entertainer before the first episode of Drag Race. But since the show started, he’s become more iconic and has helped usher in a new era of Drag. Here, he offers a more intimate side of himself, detailing his life growing up as a queer Black kid in California, his time as a punk in Atlanta and New York, and how he found self-acceptance. —Erica Ezeifedi

And one more thing: this is a very small new release week, but here are five interesting queer books out this week as a bonus for All Access members.

5 New Queer Books Out This Week

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