Anthropic AI Aided US Attack in Iran, Despite Trump Ban

This article was originally published on Inc.com.

Hours after American President Donald Trump directed every federal agency to “immediately cease” using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the company’s Claude AI tool was employed to launch the US' air strikes in Iran this weekend.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) in the Middle East reportedly deployed Claude to assess intelligence, identify targets, and simulate potential battle plans, according to insiders. Observers say Claude’s utilization in the wake of the proclaimed ban demonstrates that AI is so deeply rooted in military maneuvers that weeding it out may take far longer than six months, the deadline imposed by Trump.

This marks the latest salvo in the contentious relationship between the Defense Department and Anthropic. The company’s US$200 million contract with the Pentagon, signed last summer, included a provision that prohibits the military from using Claude to guide lethal, fully autonomous weapons or conduct surreptitious surveillance of Americans on a wide scale. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, however, demanded full access to Anthropic’s AI technology and said the company has no right to tell the military how to conduct its affairs.

The confrontation came to a head on Friday, when Hegseth announced his plan to designate Anthropic a “supply-chain risk to national security,” a move that would effectively prohibit all federal offices from working with the company. “America’s warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech,” Hegseth said in a post on X. “This decision is final.”

Trump was even more emphatic in his denunciation of Anthropic. “THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL NEVER ALLOW A RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY TO DICTATE HOW OUR GREAT MILITARY FIGHTS AND WINS WARS!” he said in a Truth Social post. He later added, “Therefore, I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!”

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called the supply-chain risk designation “retaliatory and punitive” as well as “unprecedented,” noting that Hegseth’s decree was the first ever assigned to a U.S. company. He said the company’s insistence on two “red lines” against weapons of war and spying on Americans was a stance for American values.

“Disagreeing with the government is the most American thing in the world,” he told CBS News. “And we are patriots. In everything we have done here, we have stood up for the values of this country.”