Exclusive: Congress urged to probe Pentagon-Anthropic clash
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Congress needs to examine the Pentagon's ongoing dispute with Anthropic over the limits of government use of AI models, per a letter from AI safety nonprofit Alliance for Secure AI, government watchdog Common Cause and libertarian student group Young Americans for Liberty.
Why it matters: Pressure on the Hill to weigh in on the fight between the Department of Defense and Anthropic is heating up.
- Without clear rules from Congress, the Pentagon and AI companies are determining the rules of government use of the tech in real-time.
Driving the news: The Pentagon has said it will decide by Friday whether to keep its $200 million contract with Anthropic, which has not backed down from insisting on limits on the use of its AI.
What they're saying: "What is being decided here is not which vendor the Pentagon prefers. It is whether the federal government can use frontier AI to conduct mass surveillance and apply lethal force in violation of what existing law and the Constitution allow," the letter shared first with Axios states.
- "The answer to this question must be a resounding no."
The letter is addressed to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, as well as the leaders of the House Oversight Committee.
- "Secretary Hegseth is implying that Anthropic's red lines are inconsistent with his interpretation of the law. The real question is: why won't he commit to not use AI for mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons?" the groups wrote.
- "The American people should not have to rely on a private company to be the last line of defense for their constitutional rights and the rule of law. That is Congress's job."
The committees should now do three things, per the letter:
- Summon Hegseth and other senior Pentagon officials to testify.
- Request documents from the Defense Department and Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and xAI related to the use of AI for domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.
- Require the Pentagon to regularly report back to Congress on its use of AI in classified systems.
Axios reached out to leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services, Appropriations and Intelligence Committees asking for comment on the fight between Anthropic and the Pentagon.
Senate Intelligence Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he's "deeply disturbed" by the reports, noting that "most Americans oppose unsupervised autonomous weapon systems and AI-facilitated surveillance."
- This "further underscores the need for Congress to enact strong, binding AI governance mechanisms for national security contexts," he said in a statement.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told Axios that demanding "complete obedience" from Anthropic to surveil Americans or develop self-firing weapons is a "chilling concept far beyond the bounds" of what the Defense Department should be doing.
- "Every Republican who believes in free enterprise should speak out against this," Coons said in a statement.
The House Armed Services Committee is tracking the ongoing dispute, but hasn't weighed in yet, a committee staffer told Axios.
