Anthropic in Disagreement With Pentagon Over AI Surveillance

Speakers

Neil Camp — Senior Strategist

Anthropic is currently in a disagreement with the Pentagon regarding AI surveillance safeguards and "kill orders," causing a delay in their agreement.
The core friction point is data ownership and ethical usage; Anthropic wants to prevent mass surveillance and ensure human control over lethal force.
If Anthropic refuses the contract terms, the Pentagon is expected to pivot to other "Big Tech" platforms with sufficient scale, as the relationship is not exclusive.

Ticker	Direction	Speaker	Thesis	Time
US BIG TECH /MSFT /GOOGL /AMZN	LONG	Neil Campling Tech/TMT Analyst	"I think at this point there are three or four platforms that had the scale that could be an alternative source... And, of course, the Pentagon has had some deep relationships with of the big tech companies for a number of years." Anthropic's ethical hesitation ("safeguards against basically mass surveillance") creates a friction point in securing government defense contracts. The Pentagon's demand for AI capability is urgent. If Anthropic stalls, the capital and contracts will flow to the "alternative sources" — the legacy Hyperscalers (Microsoft, Google, Amazon) who already possess the required scale and deep, existing security clearances/relationships with the DoD. LONG US Big Tech as the default beneficiary of defense AI spending when ethical pure-plays (like Anthropic) decline participation. Regulatory pressure on Big Tech regarding AI safety could increase; Anthropic might eventually concede to secure revenue.	—