Anthropic loosens safety guardrails amid Pentagon AI clash

Anthropic announced a shift away from its two-year-old Responsible Scaling Policy, scrapping the automatic pause on training more capable models and adopting a flexible Frontier Safety Roadmap that publicly grades safety goals while separating its own safeguards from industry guidelines. The move arrives as Anthropic faces government pressure in a Pentagon dispute over AI red lines, including a deadline from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to roll back safeguards or risk losing a $200 million contract, with safety concerns cited around AI-powered weapons and mass domestic surveillance.