Anthropic CEO Apologizes to Administration Over Leaked Memo Even as the Company Prepares Court Challenge Following Ouster From Pentagon

The head of AI company, Anthropic, which was dropped by the Defense Department last week for refusing to cooperate on using its models for fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance, is now apologizing for remarks he made in a memo to his staff immediately after being tossed.Dario Amodei is walking back the leaked memo, which criticized President Trump, calling it a “casual” internal post to staff that “does not reflect my careful or considered views.”“I want to completely apologize for this memo,” Mr. Amodei said in remarks, noting that it was written within hours of President Trump announcing that all Anthropic services were being removed from the federal government. Immediately following Mr. Trump’s statement, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced he would designate Anthropic a supply chain risk, severely limiting federal access and ability to write contracts with the government. At the same time, Mr. Hegseth handed over Anthropic’s role to ChatGPT’s OpenAI in what Mr. Amodei described as a “confusing” transfer of responsibility.“It was one of the most disorienting times in, kind of, Anthropic’s history.”The 180-degree turn, driven by regulatory pressure, not ideological realignment, suggests that Anthropic is feeling the strain from the new designation. However, the effort to stabilize Anthropic’s relationship with the government comes as Mr. Amodei announced in the same breath that he has no choice but to sue the federal government over the designation of Anthropic 10 USC 3252.“We do not believe this action is legally sound, and we see no choice but to challenge it in court,” Mr. Amodei wrote in a statement. “The vast majority of our customers are unaffected by a supply chain risk designation. With respect to our customers, it plainly applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts.”After the Pentagon’s ouster of the AI company, and Mr. Amodei’s retort, Anthropic surged in popularity among users. App downloads spiked on Monday to more than 274,000, as the publicpraised Mr. Amodei’s refusal to submit to the Defense Department demands. An independent analyst, author, and Sri Lankan-based CEO, Shanaka Anslem Perera, said the lawsuit provides a novel case over priorities. “The court challenge will determine whether a US government agency can compel an American AI company to remove ethical restrictions from its product as a condition of doing business with the federal government,” he posted on X. “That is not a technology law question. It is a First Amendment question wearing a procurement dispute as a costume.”In a statement late Thursday, Mr. Amodei said he has had productive conversations with the Defense Department about helping with its transition to OpenAI and the chance to work together again to support “frontline warfighters” with intelligence analysis, cyber operations, and modeling and simulations. “Our most important priority right now is making sure that our warfighters and national security experts are not deprived of important tools in the middle of major combat operations,” he said, adding that “Anthropic has much more in common with the Department of War than we have differences.” “All our future decisions will flow from that shared premise,” he said.The Defense Department’s undersecretary for research responded Friday that it is not conducting any talks with Anthropic.“I want to end all speculation: there is no active @DeptofWar negotiation with@AnthropicAI,” wrote Emil Michael.While Mr. Amodei said he regrets the memo, he avoided issuing a direct apology to the president.“I apologized to people that I talked to within the DoW. I’m happy to apologize to others in the administration,” he said.

Anthropic CEO Apologizes to Administration Over Leaked Memo Even as the Company Prepares Court Challenge Following Ouster From Pentagon

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