"US military reportedly used Claude in Iran strikes despite Trump’s ban" 01/03/26

The US military reportedly used Claude, Anthropic’s AI model, to inform its attack on Iran despite Donald Trump’s decision, announced hours earlier, to sever all ties with the company and its artificial intelligence tools.

According to [the Wall Street Journal], US military command used the tools for intelligence purposes, as well as to help select targets and carry out battlefield simulations.

On Friday, just hours before the Iran attack began, Trump ordered all federal agencies to stop using Claude immediately. He denounced Anthropic on Truth Social as a “Radical Left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real World is all about”.

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The flaming row was triggered by the US military’s use of Claude in its raid to capture the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in January. Anthropic objected, pointing to its terms of use which do not allow Claude to be applied for violent ends, to develop weapons or for surveillance.

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Since the break with Anthropic, the rival company OpenAI has stepped into the breach. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, said he had reached an agreement with the Pentagon for use in its classified network of the company’s tools, which include ChatGPT.