# AI Safety Newsletter #69: Department of War, Anthropic, and National Security

*Also, Anthropic Removes a Core Safety Commitment*

Welcome to the AI Safety Newsletter by the [Center for AI Safety](https://safe.ai/). We discuss developments in AI and AI safety. No technical background required.  
In this edition, we discuss the conflicts between Anthropic and the Department of War and Anthropic’s recent removal of a core safety commitment.  
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Pentagon Declares Anthropic a Supply Chain Risk to National Security
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![image.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/v1773418045/lexical_client_uploads/qflhoqvbuhlkocswor6m.png)

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (left) and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (right)

Thursday, March 5th, the US Department of War (DoW) [announced](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-05/pentagon-says-it-s-told-anthropic-the-firm-is-supply-chain-risk) that Anthropic is designated a “supply chain risk,” meaning that Anthropic products cannot be used by the DoW or in any defense contracts. This comes after several weeks of tensions between the two organizations over whether Anthropic models would be used for autonomous weapons and surveillance of Americans, with Anthropic ultimately refusing the DoW’s requests.

**This started as contract negotiation.** On February 27th, President Trump [posted](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116144552969293195) on Truth Social that the US government would be canceling their contract with Anthropic due to the company’s limits on the uses of its AI, Claude. While the Pentagon wanted to be able to use Claude for “any lawful use,” Anthropic insisted on two restrictions: fully autonomous weapons and domestic mass surveillance.

![image.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/v1773418066/lexical_client_uploads/wjxwnp3ve2y4wmxhll7k.png)

**Negotiations quickly escalated.** Later the same day, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth [posted](https://x.com/SecWar/status/2027507717469049070) on X that Anthropic would be designated a supply chain risk. Undersecretary of War Emil Michael later [clarified](https://x.com/jawwwn_/status/2029937697322574061) that this designation was due to concerns that the loyalties of Anthropic AIs could be subverted, possibly causing sabotage during high-stakes operations.

![image.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/v1773418079/lexical_client_uploads/ridwyxwvbba6s4dhclmq.png)![image.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/v1773418090/lexical_client_uploads/f4odfwqpnaxttecbk61e.png)

  
Further, Hegseth announced that Anthropic would be barred from doing business with any organization that does business with the US military, even outside of defense contracts. These stronger proposed restrictions are closer to those imposed by congress on foreign companies like Huawei, and are outside of the Department of War’s authority.

**Anthropic is** [**challenging**](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/technology/anthropic-defense-artificial-intelligence-lawsuit.html) **the designation in court.** Legal analysis from [Lawfare](https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/pentagon%27s-anthropic-designation-won%27t-survive-first-contact-with-legal-system) suggests that this action is a questionable use of a designation meant for foreign adversaries, not contract disputes. No other AI companies, including Chinese AI companies, have faced equivalent sanctions. DeepSeek is banned from several federal agencies individually, but is not considered a supply chain risk despite the fact that it [sabotages](https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/blog/crowdstrike-researchers-identify-hidden-vulnerabilities-ai-coded-software/) work it performs for anti-CCP users.

Anthropic Drops Core Safety Commitment
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![image.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/v1773418109/lexical_client_uploads/non8ffofvzlcdw2ng94a.png)

Version 3.0 of Anthropic’s Responsible Scaling Policy took effect in late February, overturning commitments in previous versions. [Source](https://www.anthropic.com/responsible-scaling-policy).

**Anthropic recently removed their commitment to never release catastrophically harmful AI.** This continues the trend of Anthropic and other frontier AI companies progressively weakening safety commitments as profit incentives grow. None of Anthropic, OpenAI, or DeepMind currently have robust commitments against releasing AIs they assess to be highly dangerous.

**The** [**new policy**](https://www.anthropic.com/news/responsible-scaling-policy-v3) **emphasizes voluntary restraint over hard commitments**. Anthropic has repeatedly removed safety commitments, citing their need for increased access to dangerous AIs and freedom to decide how to execute their mission. This comes at a time when Anthropic is becoming increasingly consumer-focused, with [over 1 million](https://x.com/mikeyk/status/2029662454079512598) new users joining each day recently.

**Competitive pressures are creating a race to the bottom on frontier AI safety.** Anthropic’s justification for the changes are largely based on the fact that other AI companies are not going to stop development; the argument is that, if Anthropic alone were to stick to stricter safety commitments, it would simply fall behind other developers, while doing little to reduce overall risk. This causes a vicious cycle, as loosened safety commitments increase the speed of AI development, which in turn incentivizes further loosening.

Opportunity for Experienced Researchers: AI and Society Fellowship
==================================================================

Applications are now open for the AI and Society Fellowship at the Center for AI Safety: a fully funded, 3-month summer fellowship in San Francisco for scholars in economics, law, IR, and adjacent fields to conduct research on the societal impacts of advanced AI. The fellowship will include regular guest speaker events by professors at Stanford, Penn, Johns Hopkins, and more. **Apply by March 24**. For more information, visit: [https://safe.ai/fellowship](https://safe.ai/fellowship)

In Other News
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### Government

*   OpenAI is [working on](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-13/openai-tapped-for-voice-control-tech-in-us-drone-swarm-challenge) voice control technology for drone swarms in a US military trial
*   Florida Governor Ron DeSantis [directed](https://futureoflife.org/press-release/desantis-directs-florida-agencies-to-partner-with-fli/) state agencies to work with the Future of Life Institute on protecting children from AI harms
*   The US Commerce Department is [reportedly](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/international-trade/us-drafts-rules-for-sweeping-power-over-nvidias-global-sales) considering new, “tiered” controls on AI chip exports, with conditions for sales approvals dependent on the size of the export
*   OpenAI [amended](https://openai.com/index/our-agreement-with-the-department-of-war/) its agreement with the Department of War, claiming to prohibit the use of its models for domestic surveillance, but skeptics have [pointed out](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/887309/openai-anthropic-dod-military-pentagon-contract-sam-altman-hegseth) that the vagueness of the wording in the agreement may in fact allow for such uses
*   The White House [reportedly](https://www.axios.com/2026/02/15/white-house-utah-ai-transparency-bill) pressured Republican lawmakers in Utah to drop an AI safety bill aiming to reduce cyber risks and protect children
*   In AI Frontiers, Erich Grunewald and Raghav Akula [argue](https://ai-frontiers.org/articles/high-bandwidth-memory-critical-gaps-us-export-controls) that the US Government should close gaps in export controls on high-bandwidth memory, to prevent China catching up to frontier AI development

### Industry

*   OpenAI [launched](https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5-4/) GPT-5.4 in ChatGPT, Codex, and the company’s API
*   NVIDIA [reportedly](https://www.ft.com/content/47f1cf56-209f-46fb-a437-f769b9ccb2cb) ceased production of H200 chips intended for export to China, shifting TSMC capacity to produce its newer Vera Rubin chips instead
*   OpenAI [announced](https://openai.com/index/scaling-ai-for-everyone/) it had raised new investment of $110 billion at a valuation of $730 billion
*   Anthropic [announced](https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-raises-30-billion-series-g-funding-380-billion-post-money-valuation) it had raised $30 billion, reaching a valuation of $380 billion
*   SpaceX [acquired](https://www.spacex.com/updates#xai-joins-spacex) xAI, creating the most valuable private company in history
*   Yann LeCun’s start-up, AMI Labs, [raised](https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/09/yann-lecuns-ami-labs-raises-1-03-billion-to-build-world-models/) more than $1 billion at a valuation of $3.5 billion
*   Reuters [reported](https://www.reuters.com/world/china/asml-unveils-euv-light-source-advance-that-could-yield-50-more-chips-by-2030-2026-02-23/) on new ASML technology that could increase chip production by 50% by 2030
*   In AI Frontiers, Poe Zhao [analyzes](https://ai-frontiers.org/articles/china-and-the-us-are-running-different-ai-races) how economic constraints are driving China’s startups to pursue more pragmatic strategies than their US counterparts

### Civil Society

*   Tech companies [Block](https://x.com/jack/status/2027129697092731343?s=46&t=iWdpMZpyo34exxPP4J23DQ) and [Atlassian](https://www.reuters.com/technology/atlassian-lay-off-about-1600-people-pivot-ai-2026-03-11/) cut thousands of jobs, citing AI efficiency as a factor in the decisions
*   A lawsuit filed against Google [alleged](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-04/google-gemini-accused-of-coaching-user-to-suicide-in-new-suit) that the company’s AI model Gemini encouraged a 36-year-old man from Florida to commit suicide
*   Anthropic launched [The Anthropic Institute](https://www.anthropic.com/news/the-anthropic-institute) to research the societal challenges of AI
*   Researchers from GovAI and the University of Oxford [described](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.03992) 14 metrics for assessing how much AI is automating AI research and development — which has implications for how much AI capabilities could accelerate
*   Summer Yue, a director of alignment at Meta, [said](https://x.com/summeryue0/status/2025774069124399363) she had temporarily lost control of her OpenClaw agent, needing to run in order to unplug the computer it was running on.
*   Anthropic published a new [study](https://www.anthropic.com/research/labor-market-impacts) on AI’s impacts on the labor market
*   In AI Frontiers, Benjamin Jones [explains](https://ai-frontiers.org/articles/how-ai-could-benefit-the-workers-it-displaces) how AI automating some jobs could be economically positive for workers, provided that that AI far outperforms the humans it displaces