Just hours after U.S. President Trump announced that the federal government would stop using artificial intelligence tools from technology company Anthropic, the U.S. military used the same tools to launch large-scale air strikes against Iran. People familiar with the matter confirmed that U.S. military command organizations around the world, including the U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, are using Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence tool. Central Command declined to comment on the specific systems used in the operation against Iran.
Despite growing tensions between the company and the Pentagon, U.S. Central Command continues to use the tool for intelligence assessments, target identification and combat scenario simulations, highlighting how deeply embedded such AI tools are in military operations, these people said.
The Trump administration and Anthropic have been feuding for months over how its AI models can be used by the Pentagon. Trump ordered various government agencies on Friday to stop working with the company, and the U.S. Department of Defense listed it as a security threat and supply chain risk.
Previously, during contract negotiations, Anthropic refused to allow the Pentagon to use its tools in all legal scenarios. The company’s lobbying efforts against government AI policy and its ties to large donors to the Democratic Party also rankled government officials.
Claude has been used by the US military in major missions such as the arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro, which also explains why the government said it will take six months to phase out the technology - considering that partners such as the data analysis company Palantir are also using it, the replacement process is very complicated.
As the relationship between Anthropic and the Pentagon deteriorates, the U.S. Department of Defense has reached an agreement with competitors to use products from ChatGPT developer OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI in classified scenarios. Artificial intelligence experts say it will still take months to replace Claude with other models.