Vitalik Buterin backs Anthropic in White House clash after Citrini report predicts AI dystopia

“Do not back down.”

Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin gave Anthropic that message as the artificial intelligence firm’s high-stakes face-off with the White House over the military’s application of its technology is coming to a head this week.

The OpenAI rival has maintained that its tools should not be used to power fully autonomous weapons platforms and mass-surveillance of Americans, a stance Buterin backs.

“It will significantly increase my opinion of Anthropic if they do not back down, and honourably eat the consequences,” Buterin said on X while copying Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

“Actually a very conservative and limited posture, it’s not even anti-military,” Buterin said. “Fully autonomous weapons and mass privacy violation are two things we all want less of.”

The Ethereum founder’s support comes as US War Secretary Pete Hegseth has given Anthropic a Friday deadline to grant the military broad access to its AI models, escalating a standoff that could reshape the government’s AI supply chain, CNBC reported.

If the company declines, Hegseth has threatened to designate Anthropic a “supply chain risk” — a label typically reserved for foreign adversaries — or recommend invoking the Defense Production Act, which grants sweeping authority to direct domestic industry in the name of national security.

Anthropic so far seems to maintain its two red lines.

“As a safety-first company, we believe that building reliable, trustworthy, and secure systems is our collective responsibility,” Anthropic’s marketing materials say.

AI nightmares

Buterin’s support for Anthropic comes as a new report by Citrini Research rattled Wall Street this week by sermonising the risks of AI to the global market.

The report, titled “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis,” casts a dystopian outlook driven by AI.

The report sketches a 2028 scenario in which rapid advances in automation push US unemployment to over 10%, as software and delivery roles are displaced at scale.

The thesis has struck a chord with investors already questioning stretched valuations in AI-linked names. Shares in software and automation-sensitive sectors have come under pressure, with BlackRock’s flagship index down over 27% this year.

What’s Anthropic?

Anthropic has become one of tech’s fastest-scaling enterprises, generating roughly 80% of its revenue from corporate clients and closing a $30 billion funding round at a $380 billion valuation this month.

It secured a $200 million Department of War contract last year and, until recently, was the only AI firm authorised to operate on US classified networks.

Anthropic’s clash with US officials intensified after reports that Claude, the company’s flagship product, was used alongside Palantir technology during the US special operations raid in Venezuela.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced co-founder of FTX, was one of Anthropic’s early investors and invested $500 million into the AI developer before his crypto exchange collapsed.

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com.