The Trump administration has drafted strict new guidelines for civilian AI contracts. Per a draft seen by the Financial Times, AI companies would have to grant the government an irrevocable license for "all lawful use," the exact wording Anthropic has resisted and OpenAI has accepted.
The GSA guidelines, drafted over recent months, also ban ideological or partisan judgments in AI outputs, such as favoring diversity programs, which is itself an ideological requirement and echoes China's political guardrails for AI manufacturers. Another clause requires disclosure of any model tweaks made to comply with non-US regulations like the EU Digital Services Act.
The guidelines land amid the Anthropic fallout: last week, the Pentagon killed a $200 million contract after the company demanded restrictions on mass surveillance of US citizens and autonomous weapons for reliability reasons. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Anthropic of seeking veto power over military decisions, and the White House labeled it a supply chain risk.

