Pentagon used Anthropic’s Claude AI in US raid to capture Nicolás Maduro

The United States captured President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges early in January.

Anthropic's artificial-intelligence model Claude was used in the U.S. military's operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Claude's deployment came via Anthropic's partnership with data firm Palantir Technologies , whose platforms are widely used by the Defense Department and federal law enforcement, the report added.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The U.S. Defense Department, the White House, Anthropic and Palantir did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

The Pentagon is pushing top AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, to make their artificial-intelligence tools available on classified networks without many of the standard restrictions that the firms apply to users, Reuters exclusively reported on Wednesday.

Many AI companies are building custom tools for the U.S. military, most of which are available only on unclassified networks typically used for military administration. Anthropic is the only one that is available in classified settings through third parties, but the government is still bound by the company's usage policies.

The usage policies of Anthropic, which raised $30 billion in its latest funding round and is now valued at $380 billion, forbid using Claude to support violence, design weapons or carry out surveillance.

The United States captured President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges early in January.