WASHINGTON — For America’s AI industry, the message in President Donald Trump’s new memo on national security is unmistakable: Uncle Sam wants you — unless you’re Anthropic.
Of course there’s an exception to that exception: Anthropic’s cutting-edge Claude Mythos, which is in use at the NSA, and for which the memo allows a waiver, showing just how complicated the administration’s relationship with tech titans has become.
Overall, National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) 11, issued Friday, aims to accelerate adoption of AI in national security. It seeks to streamline procurement, expand training, and enhance security in close collaboration with America’s leading tech firms, while revoking Biden-era guardrails it sees as too restrictive. But the memo also orders the “termination for default or for convenience” of contracts with any company that tries to restrict how the government uses its AI, as the administration alleges Anthropic did, with strictly limited waivers allowed for pressing needs, as reportedly is the case at NSA.
The memorandum is careful not to name specific companies. Nonetheless, AI and legal experts who spoke to Breaking Defense agree, as do many reputable observers, that the six-page policy edict is unmistakably shaped by the administration’s ongoing legal battle with Anthropic and its desire to strengthen its position for any future disputes with its AI contractors.
