US Pentagon

A high-stakes dispute over military use of artificial intelligence erupted into public view this week as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth brusquely terminated the Pentagon's work with Anthropic and other government agencies, using a law designed to counter foreign supply chain threats to slap a scarlet letter on a US company. President Donald Trump and Hegseth accused rising AI star Anthropic of endangering national security after its CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company's products could be used for mass surveillance or autonomous armed drones. The San Francisco-based company has vowed to sue over Hegseth's call to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk, an unprecedented move to apply a law intended to counter foreign threats to a US company. Anthropic said it would challenge what it called a legally unsound action "never before publicly applied to an American company." The looming legal battle could have huge implications on the balance of power in Big Te

The Pentagon signed agreements worth up to $200 million each with major AI labs in the past year, including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google

Shortly after, the Pentagon declared the AI developer a supply-chain risk - a designation typically reserved for companies from countries the US views as adversaries

Sam Altman says OpenAI will deploy models on the US Department of War's classified network under strict safeguards, barring domestic mass surveillance and ensuring human control over force use

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Pentagon to bar its contractors and their partners from any commercial activity with Anthropic

As debate grows over Pentagon's use of artificial intelligence, concerns mount over unreliable AI systems, hallucinations, and risks of deploying autonomous weapons in high-stakes military decisions

President Donald Trump said Friday that he was ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic's technology following the company's unusually public dispute with the Pentagon over artificial intelligence safety. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also said he was designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk, a move that could prevent US military vendors from working with the company. Hegseth's remarks, delivered in a social media post, came shortly after the Pentagon's deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences - and nearly 24 hours after CEO Dario Amodei said his company "cannot in good conscience accede" to the Defense Department's demands. Trump's comments came just over an hour before the Pentagon's deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences - and nearly 24 hours after CEO Dario Amodei said his company "cannot in good conscience accede" to the Defense Department's

Anthropic said that while the Pentagon's latest proposal fell short, the company continues to negotiate with defense officials and remains committed to working with the military

The Pentagon is sending the largest force of American warships and aircraft to the Middle East in decades, including two aircraft carrier strike groups, as President Donald Trump warns of possible military action against Iran if talks over its nuclear program fall apart. "It's proven to be, over the years, not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran, and we have to make a meaningful deal," Trump said Thursday. "Otherwise bad things happen." Trump likely will have a host of military options, which could include surgical attacks on Iran's air defenses or strikes focused on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, experts say. But they warn that Iran could retaliate in ways it hadn't following attacks last year by the U.S. or Israel, potentially risking American lives and sparking a regional war. "It will be very hard for the Trump administration to do a one-and-done kind of attack in Iran this time around," said Ali Vaez, an Iran expert at the International Crisis Group. "Because the .

The Pentagon is pushing four AI companies to let the military use their tools for "all lawful purposes," including in areas of weapons development, intelligence collection and battlefield operations

The Pentagon allowed US Customs and Border Protection to use an anti-drone laser earlier this week, leading the Federal Aviation Administration to suddenly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details. The confusing arc of events began as the FAA announced on Wednesday that it was shutting down all flight traffic over the city on the US-Mexico border for 10 days, stranding some travellers, but the closure ended up only lasting a few hours. The Trump administration said it stemmed from the FAA and Pentagon working to halt an incursion by Mexican cartel drones, which are not uncommon along the southern border. One of the people said the laser was deployed near Fort Bliss without coordinating with the FAA, which decided then to close the airspace to ensure commercial air safety. Others familiar with the matter said the technology was used despite a meeting scheduled for ..

The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to be ready in case of a possible deployment to Minnesota, where federal authorities have been conducting a massive immigration enforcement operation, two defence officials said Sunday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, said two infantry battalions of the Army's 11th Airborne Division have been given prepare-to-deploy orders. The unit is based in Alaska and specializes in operating in arctic conditions. One defence official said the troops are standing by to deploy to Minnesota should President Donald Trump invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely-used 19th century law that would allow him to employ active duty troops as law enforcement. The move comes just days after Trump threatened to do just that to quell protests against his administration's immigration crackdown. In an emailed statement, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell did not deny the orders were issued and said

FBI agents searched a Washington Post reporter's home on Wednesday as part of a leak investigation into a Pentagon contractor accused of taking home classified information, the Justice Department said. Hannah Natanson, who has been covering President Donald Trump's transformation of the federal government, had a phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch seized in the search of her Virginia home, the Post reported. Natanson has reported extensively on the federal workforce and recently published a piece describing how she gained hundreds of new sources leading one colleague to call her the federal government whisperer. While classified documents investigations aren't unusual, the search of a reporter's home marks an escalation in the government's efforts to crack down on leaks. The Post was told that Natanson and the newspaper are not targets of the probe, executive editor Matt Murray said in an email to colleagues. Nonetheless, this extraordinary, aggressive action is deeply concerning

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok will join Google's generative AI engine in operating inside the Pentagon network, as part of a broader push to feed as much of the military's data as possible into the developing technology. Very soon we will have the world's leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department, Hegseth said in a speech at Musk's space flight company, SpaceX, in South Texas. The announcement comes just days after Grok which is embedded into X, the social media network owned by Musk drew global outcry and scrutiny for generating highly sexualized deepfake images of people without their consent. Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Grok, while the U.K.'s independent online safety watchdog announced an investigation Monday. Grok has limited image generation and editing to paying users. Hegseth said Grok will go live inside the Defense Department later this month and ...

The attack is likely to inject additional energy into heated discussions in US Congress about the strategy toward Venezuela, and the debate about how far Trump can go without seeking authorisation

The Pentagon said the contract involved foreign military sales to Israel. The U.S. has long been by far the largest arms supplier to its closest Middle East ally

A Pentagon report submitted to the US Congress has flagged China's claim over India's Arunachal Pradesh as part of its stated "core interests", underscoring Beijing's broader national strategy

A recent report by the Pentagon said that China 'probably seeks to capitalise on decreased tension' with India to stabilise bilateral relations and prevent a deepening of US-India ties

The Pentagon said China's rapid military expansion poses security risks to the US, even as Washington looks to keep ties stable through dialogue and communication

The document outlines that China identifies three "core interests" that are central to national rejuvenation and not open to negotiation or compromise