Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is back at the negotiating table with the Pentagon, scrambling to stop the defense department from designating the startup a "supply chain risk." Talks had blown up after Anthropic refused to allow mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons, a standoff that threatened to force government contractors to ditch Claude entirely.
Anthropic secretly pitched a proposal for a $100 million Pentagon prize challenge to build voice-controlled autonomous drone swarms, even while clashing with defense officials over military guardrails. Tensions have since boiled over: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Pentagon and its partners to freeze all commercial business with the AI startup.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman just defended the company's controversial Pentagon contract to staff while announcing major revisions following employee backlash and user cancellations. Altman admitted the rushed deal looked opportunistic and sloppy, while researchers clarified models won't deploy to NSA or other intelligence agencies for now.
Anthropic just crossed a $19 billion annual revenue run rate, more than doubling its numbers from late 2025. After CEO Dario Amodei refused Pentagon demands to use its AI for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons, Anthropic was labeled a supply-chain risk—triggering a consumer rally that pushed Claude past ChatGPT in daily U.S. mobile downloads.
Anthropic just upgraded its skill-creator tool with no-code testing and benchmarking features designed for non-engineer skill authors. The update introduces eval writing, parallel multi-agent test runs, blind A/B comparator agents, and a prompt optimizer to fix misfiring skills. Why it matters: as foundation models change, skills can quietly break or become redundant; this brings software testing rigor to workflow prompts without writing code.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman just told staff at an all-hands meeting that the company has no say over how the Pentagon deploys its AI software. Altman noted the Defense Department will consult OpenAI for technical expertise, but won't let it weigh in on specific military actions—adding that trying to influence those decisions is likely why rival Anthropic was banned.
OpenAI just announced it will amend its Defense Department contract to explicitly ban using its AI systems for domestic mass surveillance against Americans. CEO Sam Altman admitted the deal was rushed on February 27 and looked opportunistic, adding he would rather go to jail than follow an unconstitutional order. Why it matters: The retreat comes as OpenAI faces severe backlash over defense ties, while Anthropic surges after refusing the Pentagon's demands.
Anthropic just rolled out Voice Mode in its coding assistant Claude Code, starting with about 5% of users before expanding over the coming weeks. Eligible developers will see a note on their welcome screen and can toggle it on with /voice to steer their programming workflow with spoken words instead of typing.
OpenAI's mobile app just saw U.S. uninstalls surge 295% in a single day after announcing a deal with the Department of Defense, alongside a 775% spike in one-star reviews. Meanwhile, Anthropic's Claude surged past ChatGPT to claim the No. 1 spot on the U.S. App Store after publicly rejecting the same military contract over surveillance and autonomous weapons concerns.
Claude just launched an import feature that lets you transfer your preferences and context from other AI chatbots without starting from scratch. You simply run a provided prompt in your old chatbot to export your saved context, then paste it directly into Claude's memory settings. It is free and keeps project contexts neatly separated.
Anthropic just made Claude's Memory feature available to free plan users, along with easier options to import and export saved data. The feature lets Claude retain preferences and context across chats for a more personalized assistant without paying for a subscription. Best of all, users retain full control and can pull their memory data out whenever they want.
Claude just surged to the top of the US App Store as users flee ChatGPT following OpenAI's controversial Pentagon deal. TechCrunch broke down how to take your digital history with you, explaining how to export your ChatGPT memories and conversation logs to train Claude's built-in memory feature without starting from scratch.
The U.S. Treasury Department just terminated all use of Anthropic products, including its flagship Claude platform, following a directive from President Trump. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that no private company will dictate terms of national security. Why it matters: The move signals an aggressive reshaping of federal AI procurement that could lock major commercial LLMs out of government agencies.
Ilya Sutskever just publicly praised Anthropic and OpenAI for refusing to back down on their AI safety commitments. He noted that even tougher situations lie ahead, making it critical for fierce rivals to set differences aside when it counts. Why it matters: When top competitors align on safety boundaries, it sets a powerful precedent for the entire industry.
Anthropic just pushed back against US War Secretary Pete Hegseth after he threatened to label the startup a supply chain risk. The feud stems from Anthropic's refusal to let Claude power mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. Anthropic vowed to fight the designation in court, reassuring commercial and API customers their access remains completely safe.
OpenAI just reached an agreement to deploy its AI models on the Pentagon’s classified networks, securing provisions that ban domestic surveillance and maintain human control over autonomous weapons. The move comes as rival Anthropic faces severe government retaliation over similar demands, showing OpenAI’s pivot to navigate military partnerships on its own technical terms.
Apple just launched Xcode 26.3, turning its primary development environment into an agentic coding hub that can parse entire project structures, edit files, and run multi-step workflows. The release natively plugs in Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's Codex alongside Model Context Protocol support, keeping developers in control via a strict permission layer.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei just drew a hard line against the Department of War, refusing demands to remove Claude's safeguards against domestic mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. Despite threats of supply chain blacklisting and Defense Production Act enforcement, Anthropic insists today's AI is simply not reliable enough for fully autonomous combat.
Anthropic chief science officer Jared Kaplan just revealed the company is ditching its 2023 pledge to never train models without strict safety safeguards in place. Facing intense market pressure and pushback from the Pentagon, the AI startup is loosening its Responsible Scaling Policy to keep pace with rivals.
Anthropic just rolled out scheduled tasks inside Claude's Cowork feature, allowing the assistant to execute recurring workflows automatically on a set schedule. Instead of manual prompts every time, Claude can now handle jobs like morning briefs, weekly spreadsheet refreshes, and Friday deck updates on its own—moving AI from an on-demand chatbot to an always-on colleague.
