The AI That Picks Targets While Getting Kicked Out

Hundreds of Targets, 48 Hours of Real War

While U.S. forces strike Iran, Anthropic's Claude AI is making life-and-death decisions in real-time. According to The Washington Post, Claude—integrated with the Pentagon's Maven system—has "suggested hundreds of targets, issued precise location coordinates, and prioritized those targets according to importance."

But here's where it gets bizarre: At the exact same time, major defense contractors are actively replacing Claude with competitor AI systems. Lockheed Martin and other defense giants started swapping out Anthropic's models this week, Reuters reports.

Trump's Contradictory Orders

The confusion stems from overlapping U.S. government directives. President Trump ordered civilian agencies to stop using Anthropic products but gave the Department of Defense six months to wind down operations. The very next day, the U.S. and Israel launched surprise attacks on Tehran.

Result? Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promises to designate Anthropic as a "supply-chain risk," but no official steps have been taken. Without legal barriers, the military keeps using the system while contractors voluntarily bail out.

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The Corporate Exodus

The private sector isn't waiting for government action. A managing partner at J2 Ventures told CNBC that 10 portfolio companies "have backed off of their use of Claude for defense use cases and are in active processes to replace the service."

This creates an unprecedented situation: One of the world's leading AI labs is simultaneously powering an active war and being systematically removed from the defense ecosystem.

The Legal Wild Card

The biggest unknown? Whether Hegseth will follow through on the supply-chain risk designation. Such a move would likely trigger a heated legal battle—Anthropic versus the Pentagon, while Claude continues making targeting decisions in Iranian airspace.

For now, Anthropic finds itself in perhaps the most awkward position in tech history: being both indispensable to and unwelcome in the same industry.