What’s behind the Anthropic-Pentagon dispute? | DW News

According to reporting by German News outlet DW News, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given Anthropic a Friday deadline to grant the military full access to its AI models, or risk losing up to $200 million in contracts. Vanessa Vos, a researcher at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, says the Pentagon wants to go beyond last year’s limits on autonomous weapons and expand AI from intelligence and reconnaissance to kinetic uses, such as selecting and engaging targets with drones.

Vos says AI can behave in unintended ways, so militaries and regulators push for meaningful human control over targeting decisions. She says other major AI companies have signed similar defense deals, but Anthropic stands out for prioritizing safety safeguards and is unlikely to abandon its self-imposed red lines.

Bill Edwards’ recent Small Wars Journal article, “Disciplined Autonomy: How AI and sUAS Will Redefine Security, Safety, Emergency Response, and Military Operations” (Feb. 2026), similarly argues that militaries should adopt AI gradually under strict oversight rather than granting systems unchecked autonomy. His argument reinforces the Anthropic dispute by showing why debates about safeguards and human control over AI weapons will remain central as militaries expand their use of the technology.