The meeting between Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was scheduled to hash out a months-long dispute. The AI startup has refused to remove safeguards that would prevent its technology from being used to target weapons autonomously and conduct U.S. domestic surveillance. During the meeting, Hegseth delivered an ultimatum to Anthropic: get on board or the government would take drastic action, people familiar with the matter said. The government gave Anthropic until Friday at 5 p.m. to respond, according to a senior Pentagon official with knowledge of the matter. Reuters has previously reported that it plans to move all AI companies to classified networks.

Source: The Telegraph February 25, 2026 16:46 UTC