1. United States
2. S.C.
3. Letter

Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon are pushing to use advanced AI for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous lethal operations, without human oversight, and are threatening consequences against companies if safeguards aren’t removed. At a meeting today, the Defense Secretary reportedly gave Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei an ultimatum: remove the company’s safeguards that prohibit its AI from being used for autonomous kill operations and domestic surveillance — or face retaliation. Anthropic’s current rules are simple: Their model cannot be used to kill without humans in the loop. And it cannot be used for mass surveillance of civilians. Hegseth wants both restrictions lifted. According to a source familiar with the meeting, Hegseth's message was: comply by Friday or risk contract termination and being labeled a national security “supply chain threat.” Anthropic has not opposed legitimate military uses of its technology. What it has refused to do is allow AI systems to operate outside human control in life-and-death scenarios or be turned inward on the public. This is dangerous and we do not want it! Please block the U.S. military from being able to deploy AI that can kill autonomously and surveil domestically. Please stop government retaliation against companies and people who express their legal rights to oppose the government's agenda. Congress must act now!