Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday the artificial intelligence company "cannot in good conscience accede" to the Pentagon's demands to allow unrestricted use of its technology, deepening the unusually public clash with the Trump administration that is threatening to pull its contract and take other drastic steps by Friday.

As well as designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk, the government could also cancel its contract or invoke a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act to give the military more sweeping authority to use its products, even if the company doesn’t approve.

The dispute stems from the AI startup's refusal to remove safeguards that would prevent its technology from being used to conduct surveillance in US.

AI safety and research company Anthropic has told the Pentagon it will not agree to their demands to drop critical safety precautions and grant the U.S. military full access to their AI capabilities.

They announced it cannot agree to the Pentagon's demand to use its tool for mass domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.

The Defense Department has been feuding with Anthropic over military uses of its artificial intelligence tools. At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts and access to some of the most advanced AI on the planet.

Anthropic, a company founded by OpenAI exiles worried about the dangers of AI, is loosening its core safety principle in response to competition.