The US military is reported to have used Anthropic’s AI chatbot Claude to carry out strikes In Iran on February 28.
The was reported by the Wall Street Journal and Axios. The Wall Street Journal claimed that US military used to the tools for intelligence purposes, along with selecting targets and carrying out battefield simulations.
The news was reported hours after US President Donald Trump had decided to cut all ties with Anthropic and its AI tools after a deal fallout.
Trump had ordered all US agencies to stop their use of Claude. In a post on Truth Social, he called Anthropic a “Radical Left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real World is all about”.
Earlier, it was even reported that US military had used Claude when it kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Madura in January 2025. Anthropic had objected and claimed that its terms of use don’t allow Claude to be used for violence, or develop surveillance weapons.
The relationship between, Anthropic, Pentagon and Trump have worsened over time. US Secretary for War Pete Hegseth accused Anthropic of “arrogance and betrayal” in a post on X. He called Anthropic “a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security” and remarked that “no contractor, supplier or partners” which is in business with the US military may conduct any sort of business with the company. He did mention that the company will continue to provide the Department of War its services for “a period of no more than six months” for a seamless transition. “America’s warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech,” he added.
Earlier, Anthropic’s chief executive Dario Amodei said that it will not allow its AI chatbot to be used for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. Amodei remarked that “such use cases have never been included in our contracts with the Department of War, and we believe they should not be included now.”
Following this, Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI announced that he has reached an agreement with the Department of War for to deploy their models in their classified network.
