Oppose Pentagon Pressure on Anthropic AI Safety Standards

I am writing to urge you to intervene and prevent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from forcing Anthropic to remove critical safety standards from its Claude AI model. Secretary Hegseth has given Anthropic until Friday to agree to eliminate safeguards that prevent mass surveillance of Americans and the development of autonomous weapons that can attack without human input, threatening to designate the company as a "supply chain risk" or invoke the Defense Production Act if they refuse. These safety standards exist for good reason. Allowing AI systems to conduct mass surveillance of American citizens would violate our constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and our fundamental right to privacy. Permitting the development of autonomous weapons that can kill without human decision-making crosses a dangerous ethical line that removes human accountability from life-and-death decisions on the battlefield. During a closed-door meeting at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei reiterated his company's commitment to these safeguards. The Defense Secretary's response has been to threaten punitive action rather than work within reasonable ethical boundaries. A defense official acknowledged to Axios that the Pentagon needs Anthropic because "they are that good," yet Secretary Hegseth appears willing to destroy that partnership rather than respect basic safety limits. The Defense Production Act was designed for national emergencies requiring specific products, not to force private companies to abandon ethical standards that protect American citizens. Using this authority to compel the creation of surveillance tools targeting Americans or fully autonomous killing machines represents a dangerous overreach of executive power. I ask that you publicly oppose Secretary Hegseth's ultimatum and work with your colleagues to ensure that any AI systems used by our military maintain safeguards against mass surveillance of Americans and autonomous weapons. National security does not require sacrificing our constitutional rights or ethical principles.