By Manisha Priyadarshini Spectre I is a portable device that prevents nearby microphones from recording your voice, by creating a protection zone around you that blocks smart devices, phones, and AI recorders from capturing conversations.
The post This smart device stops sneaky AI gadgets from listening to your conversations appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

Starting in September, Google’s Chrome browser will receive a new release every two weeks, the company has announced. Since 2021, Chrome has been on a four-week release schedule for new major versions.

The rationale for the faster two-week cycle is to enable faster delivery of performance improvements, bug fixes, security updates, and new features to both users and developers, the company said.

Although updates will be more frequent, each individual update will contain fewer changes; that, according to Google, should reduce the risk of problems and make it easier to troubleshoot any issues after launch.

The new cadence model will begin with Chrome 153, whose stable version is scheduled for release on Sept. 8, 2026. The change applies to Chrome versions for the desktop, Android, and iOS.

Source:: Computer World

Turning to the Mac, Apple on Tuesday updated the world’s most popular laptop, introducing the MacBook Air with an M5 chip. It also unveiled super-powered M5 Pro and M5 Max chips inside the MacBook Pro, a new Studio Display and all-new Studio Display XDR.   

The latest product introductions follow Monday’s announcement of a new M4-powered iPad Air and the all-new iPhone 17e, and we expect even more news during the rest of the week.

The biggest highlight concerns the M5 chip used in these Macs. It promises superb performance and will only make Apple even more ascendant in terms of power and efficiency in its class. I’d argue these are now the best laptops money can buy.

There are some slight price increases. For example, both the M5 Pro and M5 Max Macs cost roughly $200 more than their predecessors, while the M5 MacBook Air now starts at $1,099 rather than $999. That cost increase is balanced by the fact that you do get twice the storage as before in the basic models.

Apple forges forward with M5 chips

The M5 Pro and M5 Max are engineered for AI and built using the new Apple-designed Fusion Architecture. The chip design combines two dies into a single system on a chip, promising tremendous performance boosts. M5 Pro and M5 Max feature a new up-to-18-core CPU with 6 super cores, and 12 all-new performance cores, optimized for power-efficient, multithreaded pro workloads — altogether delivering up to 30% faster performance.

The chip designs are remarkable in and of themselves, combining a powerful CPU, scalable GPU, Media Engine, unified memory controller, Neural Engine, and Thunderbolt 5 capabilities.

Apple shared a few statistics to suggest what these chips deliver in performance terms:

30% increase in performance for pro tasks.

4X faster for AI operations.

35% increase in ray-tracing performance in contrast to the M4 Pro and M4 Max systems.

Apple

“M5 Pro and M5 Max are a monumental leap forward for Apple silicon, leveraging our new Fusion Architecture to scale the capabilities of Apple silicon while preserving its core tenets of performance, power efficiency, and unified memory architecture,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies. “Both chips underscore our relentless pace of innovation.”

Don’t let the dizzying array of data points confuse you. What they mean is that every single one of these Macs will deliver performance that’s considerably faster than the preceding models. The chips cement Apple’s growing reputation for offering the best and most performant systems in the world.

Apple

MacBook Air with M5 chip

Apple seems to have impressed itself with the M5 MacBook Air, describing it as being up to 4x faster than the M4 model for AI functions and an astonishing 9.5x faster than the MacBook Air with an M1 chip.

The move to M5 puts a huge amount of performance with the reach of most consumer users and will do nothing to dent growing demand for these Macs from among enterprise pros.

“The new MacBook Air with M5 brings incredible performance and even more capability to the world’s most popular laptop,” said John Ternus, Apple senior vice president of hardware engineering. “With M5, MacBook Air powers through a wide range of tasks, from everyday productivity to creative workloads.”

The M5 processor in the Air has a 10-core CPU.

There’s an up-to-10-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core.

Storage now starts with a 512GB SSD that promises about twice the read/write speeds of the last version of the Mac.

The Macs are available with 13.6-in. or 15.3-in. Liquid Retina displays offering 500nits brightness and a 12MP camera.

Connectivity includes an Apple N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. You also get two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports and MagSafe charging.

They’re available in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver and boast of up to 18 hours of battery life on a single charge.

Pre-orders begin March 4, with availability on March 11. As noted, prices start at $1,099.

Apple

MacBook Pro (M5 Pro and M5 Max)

Aimed at professionals and capable of the heaviest tasks, the new MacBook Pro models are so highly specified they should munch through any task you throw at them.“MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max redefines what’s possible on a pro laptop, now up to 4x faster than the previous generation,” said Ternus.

“With Neural Accelerators in the GPU, the new MacBook Pro enables professionals to run advanced LLMs on device and unlock capabilities that no other laptop can do — all while maintaining exceptional battery life,” he said. “Combined with even faster unified memory and storage, it empowers users to take their work even further, unleashing new possibilities and pushing the boundaries of what they can do.”

You can also opt for the base 14-in. M5 MacBook Pro at prices from $1,699.

The M5 processors are available with up to 18 CPU cores (6 super cores and 12 performance cores).

There’s a next-gen GPU, each core with a Neural Accelerator for AI compute

The new models are up to 4× faster with on-device AI vs. the previous gen and up to 8× faster than the M1 Pro/Max.

Unified memory bandwidth is impressive — up to 64GB memory at 307 GBps on the M5 Pro, and up to 128GB memory at 614 GBps on the Mac Max.

Storage starts at 1TB SSD for M5 Pro models, or 2TB SSD in the M5 Max machines. The SSD speeds are twice as fast as before.

They feature a Liquid Retina XDR display with anano-texture option, a 12MP Center Stage camera, a studio-quality mic array and a 6-speaker system.

Connectivity includes an Apple N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 and Thunderbolt 5 ports.

Available in space black and silver, they deliver up to 24 hours of battery life on a single charge.

Pre-orders begin March 4, with availability on March 11. The M5 MacBook Pro starts at $1,699; M5 Pro models start at $2,199 and M5 Max costs from $2,699. 

Apple

Apple’s new Studio Displays

Of course, even if you use a notebook most of the time, there are times when it helps to do your computing on a larger screen — particularly when handling intensive professional tasks. That is what Apple’s two new displays are for, including a redesigned 27-in. Studio Display for everyday use, and a new 27-in. Studio Display XDR particularly targeted at pro workflows.

The big changes in this generation include support for Thunderbolt 5 rather than the older Thunderbolt 3 Apple’s earlier displays supported. This lets you daisy-chain multiple displays and accessories and provides much higher bandwidth. The cameras are better, supporting features like Desk View, for instance.

But the big leap in display tech is the move to Mini-LED with HDR. Use of this tech in the Studio Display XDR makes for dramatic improvements in contrast, black levels and HDR performance. It also means a bright display, which will be particularly useful for pro video editors, as will be the far faster and smoother 120Hz refresh in the high-end display. You also gain support for AdobeRGB, which these displays lacked until now. Eagle-eyed readers might note that the 5K LCD display in the standard model remains the same, but with much better tech.

“Apple has led the industry in delivering the world’s most advanced displays for pros to do their life’s best work, and today we do that once again with the introduction of the new Studio Display family,” said Ternus, the man hotly-tipped to become the next Apple CEO.

What are the specifications of the new displays?

For the 27-in. Studio Display:

A 5,120×2,880 5K Retina panel.

600 nits of brightness and P3 wide color.

12MP Center Stage camera and a studio-quality three-mic array.

A six-speaker system with Spatial Audio designed for video calls, creative workflows, and immersive sound. 

Thunderbolt 5 with two downstream ports (to enable daisy-chaining), 2x USB-C ports, and up to 96W charging for notebooks via included cable.

Tilt-adjustable stand standard, with tilt-and-height adjustable stand an optional extra.

Nano-texture glass available for glare control .

Price: $1,599, with pre-orders starting March 4 and availability on March 11. 

For the 27-in. Studio Display XDR (Pro Model)

5K Retina XDR with mini-LED backlight.

2,000 nits peak HDR brightness and 1,000 nits SDR.

More than 2,000 local dimming zones for deep contrast.

P3 + Adobe RGB wide color gamuts for professional workflows.

120Hz refresh rate with adaptive Sync for smoother motion and variable frame support.

12MP Center Stage camera, studio-quality three-mic array and a six-speaker system with Spatial Audio.

DICOM medical imaging presets and optional Medical Imaging Calibrator (for diagnostic work, pending FDA clearance).

Two Thunderbolt 5 ports, 2xUSB-C ports, and up to 140 W charging for larger notebooks.

Tilt- and height-adjustable stand, with a VESA mount adapter available .

Price: $3,299, with pre-orders starting March 4 and availability on March 11.

Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe. Also, now on Mastodon.

Source:: Computer World

By Vikhyaat Vivek The secret to safer self-driving cars might be this tiny radar device.
The post This low-cost orange-sized sensor could be what self-driving cars need to hit public roads appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

Microsoft has warned that phishers are exploiting a built-in behavior of the OAuth authentication protocol to redirect victims to malware, using links that point to legitimate identity provider domains such as Microsoft Entra ID and Google Workspace. The links look safe but ultimately lead somewhere that isn’t.

“OAuth includes a legitimate feature that allows identity providers to redirect users to a specific landing page under certain conditions, typically in error scenarios or other defined flows,” Microsoft’s Defender Security Research Team wrote in a blog post. “Attackers can abuse this native functionality by crafting URLs with popular identity providers, such as Entra ID or Google Workspace, that use manipulated parameters or associated malicious applications to redirect users to attacker-controlled landing pages.”

The company said it has disabled several malicious OAuth applications linked to the activity but warned that related campaigns are continuing and require ongoing monitoring.

How the attack works

The attack starts with a phishing email, with observed lures impersonating e-signature requests, HR communications, Microsoft Teams meeting invites, and password reset alerts, the malicious links embedded either in the email body or inside a PDF attachment, Microsoft researchers wrote in the blog post.

The link points to a real OAuth authorization endpoint but is built with deliberately broken parameters. Attackers use a “prompt=none” value, requesting a silent authentication with no login screen, and pair it with an invalid scope value. The combination is designed to fail. When it does, the identity provider redirects the user’s browser to a URI registered by the attacker.

“Although this behavior is standards-compliant, adversaries can abuse it to redirect users through trusted authorization endpoints to attacker-controlled destinations,” the researchers wrote in the blog post.

The technique represents a structural shift in how attackers approach identity, said Greyhound Research chief analyst Sanchit Vir Gogia. “The first hop is real. The browser is behaving correctly. The identity provider is behaving correctly. The trust signal is authentic,” he said. “This shifts phishing from deception at the brand layer to manipulation at the workflow layer.”

In one campaign Microsoft detailed in the blog post, the redirect delivered a ZIP archive containing a malicious shortcut file to the victim’s device. Opening the file triggered a PowerShell script that ran reconnaissance commands and ultimately connected to an attacker-controlled server, the post said. Microsoft described the subsequent activity as consistent with pre-ransomware behavior.

Other campaigns the blog post detailed routed victims to adversary-in-the-middle frameworks such as EvilProxy to harvest credentials and session cookies.

Context, not the URL, is the new red flag

Sakshi Grover, Senior Research Manager at IDC Asia/Pacific, said the longstanding advice to hover over a link and verify its domain was built for an era of lookalike domains and that it no longer holds in environments where authentication flows routinely pass through trusted identity providers.

“Organizations should shift awareness messaging from ‘check the link’ to ‘validate the context,’” she said. “Employees should be trained to question whether an authentication request was expected, whether it aligns with a current business activity, and whether the application is requesting permissions that make sense.”

Gogia said enterprises need to go further and change the underlying behavior entirely. “Never initiate authentication journeys from unsolicited inbound links,” he said. “Authentication should begin from controlled starting points, not from email triggers.” He added that reporting unexpected login journeys must be made frictionless, and that speed of reporting is more valuable than confidence in personal judgment.

The governance gap attackers exploit

Both analysts pointed to OAuth application governance as the deeper structural gap this campaign exploits.

Grover of IDC said governance maturity remains uneven across enterprises. “Broad default consent settings and limited monitoring of redirect URIs remain common, particularly in environments where cloud and SaaS adoption have outpaced identity governance controls,” she said.

The scale of the problem is easy to underestimate, according to Gogia of Greyhound Research. “Every SaaS integration, automation workflow, and collaboration tool may require an application registration. Over time, tenants accumulate hundreds or thousands of registered apps. Redirect URIs are configured during setup and rarely revisited,” he said. “Telemetry exists. Interpretation does not.”

Microsoft said in the blog post that organizations should restrict user consent to third-party OAuth applications, audit app permissions regularly, and remove applications that are unused or over-privileged. The post also published 16 client IDs linked to the threat actors’ malicious applications and a list of initial redirection URLs as indicators of compromise. KQL hunting queries for Microsoft Defender XDR customers are included in the post to help identify related activity across email, identity, and endpoint signals.

The technique will remain effective for as long as enterprises leave these gaps unaddressed, Gogia warned. “It does not require breaking encryption,” he said. “It requires exploiting administrative complacency.”

This article first appeared on CSOonline.

Source:: Computer World

By Paulo Vargas ESA and Airbus hit 2.6 Gbps using a laser link between a plane and a satellite 36,000 km away, proving that fast, reliable in-flight internet is finally within reach.
The post Forget Starlink. ESA just tested gigabit-class satellite-to-airplane internet service appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Paulo Vargas TCL showed off the Tbot desktop robot at MWC 2026. It pairs with kids smartwatches to handle routines, learning, and bedtime when the watch is charging. But it is still a concept with no price or release date yet.
The post TCL turned your kid’s smartwatch into a cutesy desktop robot appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Rachit Agarwal Instead of sending your voice and video to remote servers, these new smart glasses process everything locally, redefining privacy in wearable AI.
The post Brilliant Lab’s $349 Halo smart glasses handle all AI workloads on-device and it’s a huge privacy win appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Hisan Kidwai After the success of the Find X9 series in pushing camera boundaries, the Chinese smartphone maker…
The post OPPO Find X9 Ultra Set for Global Release With Next-Gen Camera Tech appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Deepti Pathak After the pretty exciting Xiaomi 17 series, the Chinese maker announced the new Xiaomi Pad 8…
The post Xiaomi Pad 8 Series Launched: Big Battery, Flagship Chip & Sleek 11.2-Inch Display appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine raises concerns about the safety of Open AI’s health service ChatGPT Health, which in many cases fails to recommend emergency care when it ‘ actually needed, according to The Guardian.

Researchers tested ChatGPT Health with 60 realistic patient scenarios, ranging from mild discomfort to acute medical conditions. Three doctors assessed in advance the level of care required, and the results were then compared with the AI tool’s recommendations. In more than half of the cases where a patient should have been sent to the hospital immediately, the system instead advised them to stay home or get a regular doctor’s appointment.

According to the study, the service performed better in clear emergency situations, such as strokes or severe allergic reactions, but had trouble handling more complex or ambiguous symptoms. The researchers also point to shortcomings in how the system handled suicide risk, where warning functions sometimes disappeared depending on what additional information was added to the scenario.

In response, OpenAI said the study does not reflect how the service is typically used in practice and that the model is continuously updated, The Guardian reported.

Source:: Computer World

By Pranob Mehrotra The Xiaomi Watch 5 takes smartwatch interaction beyond simple wrist flicks, adding advanced, customizable gestures that make hands-free control more powerful than ever.
The post This WearOS watch pushes the boundaries of gesture control and Apple should take note appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Paulo Vargas Motorola’s new moto buds 2 plus feature Bose tuning and AI tools like meeting summaries, starting at €79 or $92.70 at MWC 2026.
The post Motorola’s new earbuds pack Bose sound and AI smarts appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Deepti Pathak To mark Holi 2026, OPPO India has introduced festive offers on its Reno Series and Find X9 models….
The post OPPO Celebrates Holi 2026 with Special Upgrade Deals on Reno Series & Find X9 appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Varun Mirchandani Claude surpasses ChatGPT in App Store downloads as Pentagon controversy sparks public debate and shifts AI app rankings.
The post Claude just beat ChatGPT on the App Store, and the reason is surprising appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Varun Mirchandani The “Cancel ChatGPT” trend is growing after OpenAI’s Pentagon deal sparked backlash over military AI and surveillance concerns.
The post What you should know about the Cancel ChatGPT trend and whether it crossed a red line appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Hisan Kidwai After both vivo and OPPO played around with their Pro flagships and made people rethink what…
The post Xiaomi 17 Ultra Launched With 1-Inch LOFIC Camera and 200MP Leica Zoom appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

In recent weeks, AI giant Anthropic has been locked in a high‑stakes confrontation with the Trump administration’s Department of Defense (DoD) over new standard terms the Pentagon wants to impose on AI vendors. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had demanded contract language that would give the military “any lawful use” of Anthropic’s models, effectively stripping out the company’s long‑standing limits on certain battlefield and domestic applications. 

Lawful, in Hegseth’s mind, means the DoD could do practically whatever it wanted, up to and including domestic mass surveillance and AI-controlled weapons.

If that sounds like the premise for how a war between Terminators and humans might begin, you’re not the only one to think so. Caution, however, is not a word Hegseth seems to know. But Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, however, is well aware of the real-world risks of AI —and not just the ones torn from science-fiction horror movies. 

Be that as it may, Hegseth summoned Amodei and demanded that Anthropic AI be used any way he wants or said he’d cancel the company’s existing $200 million contract and blacklist them from any further AI pacts. Hegseth gave Anthropic until 5 p.m. yesterday  to bend the knee.

Amodel didn’t bend. 

He publicly stated the company would rather walk away from work with the DoD than drop contractual safeguards meant to keep its AI from being used for mass surveillance of Americans or for fully autonomous weapons.

It’s not that he objects to using AI to defend the US. Amodei favors that. But, “using these systems for mass domestic surveillance is incompatible with democratic values,” he said. “AI-driven mass surveillance presents serious, novel risks to our fundamental liberties.” 

In addition, “frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons. We will not knowingly provide a product that puts America’s warfighters and civilians at risk. We have offered to work directly with the Department of [Defense] on R&D to improve the reliability of these systems, but they have not accepted this offer.”

Oh, and by the way, Amodei said those use cases “have never been included in our contracts with the Department of [Defense], and we believe they should not be included now.”

The Pentagon kept the pressure on, describing the strong-arm tactics as “my way or the highway” and told Anthropic to pitch their “final offer” yesterday, Still, Anthropic rejected the DoD proposal, saying it “cannot, in good conscience,” agree to these overbroad terms. 

It’s not, by the way, that Anthropic is some woke, liberal company as it’s now being painted in some pro-Trump circles. Far from it! As the National Review pointed out, “Amodei is just about the opposite of a dove when it comes to military applications of AI. For example, Anthropic’s Claude was used by the Trump administration to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January. 

Anthropic’s stance against using AI for domestic surveillance and self-guided weapon systems is less about political ideology and more about a rational realization of the dangers of trusting early-stage, unfettered AI. 

Civil liberties groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), have urged Anthropic to hold the line. They’re casting the Pentagon’s push as an attempt to bully tech firms into building tools for bulk spying and automated warfare. Within Anthropic, employees have posted public messages backing leadership’s stance. They describe the showdown as a visible test of the company’s founding commitment to steer frontier AI away from the most destabilizing military uses. 

These workers are not alone in supporting Anthropic’s stance. Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft employees announced they were behind Anthropic. Simultaneously, hundreds of Google and OpenAI employees signed an open letter calling on their companies to maintain Anthropic’s red lines against mass surveillance and fully automated weaponry. They said they “hope our leaders will stand together” to reject the current Pentagon terms.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, late yesterday threw a fit. “The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution. Their selfishness is putting AMERICAN LIVES at risk, our Troops in danger, and our National Security in JEOPARDY. Therefore, I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology.“

Government agencies now have six months to transition to alternative tools.

Some people on the right politically were behind Anthropic’s position. Retired General Jack Shanahan, for instance, who was in the middle of an earlier military-vs.-AI conflict between Project Maven and Google, did not take Trump’s side. He wrote:  “Despite the hype, frontier models are not ready for prime time in national security settings. Over-reliance on them at this stage is a recipe for catastrophe. Mass surveillance of US citizens? No thanks.”

None of this stopped other AI companies from flirting with the Defense Department. In an internal memo, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote: “We have long believed that AI should not be used for mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons, and that humans should remain in the loop for high-stakes automated decisions. These are our main red lines.” 

He went on to say OpenAI was still open to making “a deal with the DoW that allows our models to be deployed in classified environments.” That sounded like classic waffling to me, and sure enough last night, OpenAI agreed to work with Defense Department. 

Let’s face it OpenAI has a bottomless need for revenue to cover its endless capital expenses, so the execs were willing to make a deal with the devil. (Yeah, yeah, I know Altman talked about guardrails and protections. One word for you: hallucinations.)

Sadly, if OpenAI hadn’t made that deal, someone else surely would have. So, if in 2028, AI-driven autonomous drones drop bombs on suspected illegal foreigners’ homes in Minneapolis or anywhere else in the world, we’ll know who to blame — much good that will do us then. 

This insane adoption of out-of-control AI for military purposes must be stopped now lest the Terminator wars become fact rather than science fiction. 

Source:: Computer World

By Deepti Pathak Following the company’s expansion of its X-series lineup in the past few months, Vivo is now…
The post Vivo X300 FE Moves Closer to Debut; X300 Ultra Could Get Dual Teleconverter Kit appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

The Trump administration on Friday moved to ban the use of products from artificial intelligence company Anthropic by federal businesses, escalating a high-stakes clash over whether private AI makers can limit how the US military uses their systems. Just hours later, Anthropic rival OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, announced that his company had reached a deal to supply the Pentagon with its technology, ostensibly under the same terms that the military had rejected for Anthropic.

Calling Anthropic “Leftwing nut jobs,” President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that he was directing “EVERY Federal Agency” to stop using Anthropic’s technology immediately. At the same time, the Pentagon prepared to designate the company a “supply chain risk,” a label more commonly associated with foreign adversaries’ tech products, such as telecom gear made by China’s Huawei.

The decision follows an unusually public dispute between Anthropic and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over what the Pentagon called an “all lawful purposes” requirement, which means that once the military licenses an AI model, it must be free to deploy it for any lawful mission without being constrained by vendor-imposed safety policies.

On X, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed Trump’s criticism, saying “Cloaked in the sanctimonious rhetoric of ‘effective altruism,’ [Anthropic and CEO Dario Amodei] have attempted to strong-arm the United States military into submission – a cowardly act of corporate virtue-signaling that places Silicon Valley ideology above American lives.” He added, “Their true objective is unmistakable: to seize veto power over the operational decisions of the United States military. That is unacceptable.”

In a late-night statement, Anthropic responded to the Pentagon, saying, “We have not yet received direct communication from the Department of War or the White House on the status of our negotiations.” It also said it believes the designation of supply chain risk “would both be legally unsound and set a dangerous precedent for any American company that negotiates with the government.”

A six-month clock and a scramble to replace Claude

Under the plan, according to Axios, the Defense Department would sever a contract, worth up to $200 million, with Anthropic, and require defense contractors and other vendors to certify they are not using Anthropic’s Claude model in work tied to the Pentagon. The administration is allowing a six-month window to give agencies and contractors time to transition to alternatives.

That transition could be particularly disruptive, because Claude has been used in the military’s classified systems, systems that support some of the Pentagon’s most sensitive intelligence work, weapons development, and operational planning.

Defense officials have described Claude as highly capable, and acknowledged that disentangling it from existing workflows would be difficult.

What the administration says it is fighting over

Anthropic argues that certain uses, especially mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, should remain out of bounds.

CEO Dario Amodei said in an impassioned essay that the company cannot remove those guardrails “in good conscience,” warning that current AI systems are not reliable enough for fully autonomous lethal decision-making, and that large-scale surveillance carries significant risks of abuse.

The Pentagon argues that the military already operates under its own rules and oversight, and cannot have mission decisions constrained by a vendor’s terms of service, particularly in gray areas where definitions of “surveillance” and “autonomy” can be contested.

What it could mean for US national security

In the near term, the administration’s move forces the Pentagon to manage a delicate transition: removing Anthropic’s model from classified environments while maintaining continuity for intelligence analysis and planning tasks that had begun to incorporate generative AI.

The longer-term implications are broader. The ban signals that access to the federal market, particularly defense, may depend on accepting “all lawful use” terms, potentially reducing the leverage of AI companies that try to impose hard red lines on certain national security applications.

It also raises practical questions for AI companies as government vendors. If the government pushes one leading AI provider out of sensitive systems, agencies and contractors may consolidate around a smaller number of alternatives, increasing dependence on whichever firms remain willing and able to operate in classified environments.

These dislocations in critical military infrastructure could further pose a national security threat, some argue. US Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the efforts by Trump and Secretary Hegseth pose a national security risk. “The president’s directive to halt the use of a leading American AI company across the federal government, combined with inflammatory rhetoric attacking that company, raises serious concerns about whether national security decisions are being driven by careful analysis or political considerations.”

Competitors could move in: Grok, OpenAI, and Google

The decision could reshape the competitive landscape.

Elon Musk’s xAI has already signed an agreement to bring its Grok model into classified military systems, in a development that positioned xAI as a potential replacement if Anthropic’s relationship with the Pentagon collapsed.

However, significant concerns about Grok’s safety and reliability have surfaced within parts of the federal government, even as the Pentagon approved it for classified settings, an early indication that “replacement” won’t be a simple matter of switching one model for another.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has been in discussions with OpenAI and Google about expanding their models’ availability from unclassified systems into more sensitive environments, Axios reported. The discussions with OpenAi apparently bore fruit, given that less than seven hours after Trump’s Truth Social post, OpenAI’s Altman posted on Twitter, “we reached an agreement with the Department of War to deploy our models in their classified network.”

In an apparent about-face, however, the Pentagon appeared to accept from OpenAI the same terms it rejected for Anthropic. “Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems,” Altman wrote.  “The DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also sought to position his company as aligned with Anthropic’s core ethical objections, while still pursuing Pentagon business. Altman had said OpenAI shares “red lines” against mass surveillance of Americans and weapons that can fire without human oversight, even as it explores a path to work with the Defense Department.

Political and industry backlash begins to surface

Even among competitors, the Anthropic fight produced unusual sympathy.

Hundreds of employees at Google and OpenAI backed Anthropic in a petition, underscoring internal tensions across the AI industry over military applications. One factor that could derail the ban on Anthropic is unified AI sector rejection.

Peter Madsen, former professor of ethics and social responsibility at Carnegie Mellon University and executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics and Political Philosophy, said in an interview, “Every other AI company should commit to the same ideals as Anthropic so that Trump will have to use an ethical AI firm, not one that will cower to his whims.”

Anthropic has said it would cooperate with a transition to avoid disruption to ongoing missions, while noting it had not yet said whether it would challenge the “supply chain risk” designation in court.

What happens next

The administration’s decision sets up several immediate test cases.

First, agencies and contractors must determine how deeply Anthropic’s tools are embedded in their operations and how quickly they can migrate without degrading performance or security.

Second, rivals will face their own balancing act: how to satisfy Pentagon demands for “all lawful use,” or in the case of OpenAI, walk the fine line of its safety principles, while managing internal and external scrutiny over surveillance, autonomy, and the risk of AI systems behaving unpredictably in high-stakes settings.

Finally, the ban raises a fundamental policy question that goes beyond Anthropic: in the race to deploy frontier AI for national security, who sets the boundaries: the government that needs operational flexibility, or the private companies that build and control access to the technology?

This article has been updated from its original version to reflect the late night announcement by OpenAI that it had reached a deal with the Pentagon.

This article originally appeared on CIO.com.

Source:: Computer World