Pentagon Threatens to Use Defense Production Act to Compel Anthropic AI Access

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) to compel Anthropic to provide its AI technology to the Pentagon on government terms, escalating a dispute over how Anthropic’s models can be used in national security missions. Reporting indicates Anthropic has resisted terms that would allow use of its models for autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance, citing safety and governance concerns, while the Defense Department has pushed for broader, open-ended access as it expands its AI-enabled military capabilities.

Legal analysis notes the DPA is a Korean War-era statute with multiple authorities, and the practical impact depends on what, specifically, the government demands. The DPA has already been applied to AI in prior policy (including information-gathering authorities used to require reporting on training and testing), but the reported threat appears aimed at the DPA’s stronger Title I compulsion powers—an approach that maps awkwardly from traditional industrial mobilization to modern disputes over AI model access and safety guardrails, and that raises questions about whether Congress should set binding rules for military AI use rather than leaving them to executive-branch leverage or private-company policies.