# Why the Pentagon Wants to Destroy Anthropic

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595/why-the-pentagon-wants-to-destroy-anthropic
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595/why-the-pentagon-wants-to-destroy-anthropic.md
Podcast: [The Ezra Klein Show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595)
Published: 2026-03-06T10:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-dean-ball.html
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pfx.vpixl.com/6qj4J/pscrb.fm/rss/p/nyt.simplecastaudio.com/3026b665-46df-4d18-98e9-d1ce16bbb1df/episodes/2bdafb76-321b-447c-ab2a-863b3d1f409f/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=3026b665-46df-4d18-98e9-d1ce16bbb1df&awEpisodeId=2bdafb76-321b-447c-ab2a-863b3d1f409f&feed=82FI35Px
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Duration seconds: 4198

## Resource

Last Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that he was breaking the Pentagon’s contract with the A.I. company Anthropic and would declare the company a supply chain risk — a designation for companies so dangerous, they can’t exist anywhere in the U.S. military supply chain. What makes this so wild is the military is still using Anthropic’s A.I. system right now. They reportedly used it during the raid to capture Maduro in Venezuela, and are now using it in the war in Iran. This story raises so many questions: Why does the government think Anthropic is so dangerous? How exactly is the government using A.I. right now? How do they want to use A.I.? And who should ultimately control this powerful and uncertain technology? Dean Ball is a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation and the author of the newsletter Hyperdimensional. He served as a senior policy adviser on A.I. for the Trump White House and was the primary staff writer of their A.I. action plan. But he’s been furious at the Trump administration for how it has been handling the conflict with Anthropic. So I wanted to have him on the show to explain why. Mentioned: “Hyperdimensional" by Dean Ball “What if Dario Amodei Is Right About A.I.?” The Ezra Klein Show “Stratechery” by Ben Thompson Book Recommendations: Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays by Michael Oakeshott Empire Of Liberty by Gordon S. Wood Roll, Jordan, Roll by Eugene D. Genovese Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.…

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