The US Defense Department on Friday signed agreements with seven artificial intelligence (AI) giants to deploy their powerful AI systems on its secure classified networks.
Anthropic, the company behind the popular AI assistant cloud, was notably excluded from the deals, due to controversy over security restrictions on military use.
What do we know about Pentagon deals?
The agreements include well-known companies like OpenAI – the company behind ChatGPT – Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, NVIDIA, SpaceX, and Reflection – a startup building powerful open-source AI.
The goal is to expand access to advanced AI technology within the United States military for defense and security operations.
A statement from the US Defense Department said it would deploy the companies’ AI capabilities for “legitimate operational uses”.
The US government classifies sensitive information into three main levels: Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret, with Secret being the middle level.
The new AI systems will be integrated into the Pentagon’s secure classified networks, known as Impact Levels 6 and 7. These networks have been approved to handle information up to secret level.
This will give more defense and military personnel access to powerful AI tools while maintaining strict security controls. Unauthorized disclosure of classified information can cause serious harm to national security.
The Pentagon’s main AI platform, GenAI.mil, has been used by more than 1.3 million Defense Department personnel in the five months since its launch, the department said.
The press statement said GenAI.mil has “reduced many tasks from months to days,” noting that adding other AI platforms “will give war fighters the tools they need to act with confidence and defend the nation against any threat.”
Anthropic excluded from deals
The agreements do not necessarily include Anthropic, which was banned by the Pentagon and its contractors earlier this year after being labeled as a supply-chain risk — a term the U.S. government uses when it thinks a company or product could pose a potential security threat to sensitive data.
Defense Department Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael told CNBC on Friday that Anthropic remains a supply chain risk.
However, he described the company’s Mythos AI model – known for its advanced cyber capabilities – as “a different national security moment.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with senior Trump administration officials at the White House earlier this month to discuss the model, a meeting both sides described as productive.
US President Donald Trump said last week that Anthropic was “taking shape” in the eyes of his administration, raising the possibility that the company could eventually reverse its blacklisting.
Edited by: Dmytro Lyubenko