Hegseth gives Anthropic until Friday to back down on AI safeguards, Axios reports

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 5, 2026. REUTERS/Al Drago

Feb 24 (Reuters) - ⁠U.S. Defense Secretary Pete ⁠Hegseth has given artificial intelligence ‌company Anthropic until Friday to back down on safeguards for its products ​used by the military, ⁠Axios reported ⁠on Tuesday.

Reuters reported exclusively this month ⁠that ‌the Pentagon was pushing big AI companies ⁠including OpenAI and Anthropic to ​make ‌their AI tools available on ⁠classified networks ​without many of the standard restrictions that the companies ⁠apply to users.