Anthropic sues Pentagon over supply-chain risk label
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The news: Anthropic filed two federal lawsuits on Monday challenging the Pentagon’s decision to label it a supply chain risk, a designation typically reserved for companies with ties to adversarial nations such as China and Russia and one that has never before been applied to an American company.
The suits were filed in the US District Court in the Northern District of California and the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, accusing the Pentagon of using the designation to punish Anthropic on ideological grounds and argue it violated the company’s First Amendment rights, The New York Times reported.
The context: The two sides came to blows over a USD200 million contract after Anthropic refused to allow its AI to be used for autonomous lethal weapons or mass domestic surveillance.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth formally notified Anthropic of the supply chain risk designation last week, and President Trump directed federal agencies to stop using the company’s technology, with a six-month phase-out.
What they said: “These actions are unprecedented and unlawful,” Anthropic said in its court complaint. CEO Dario Amodei last week said the designation had a “narrow scope” and that businesses could still use its tools in projects unrelated to the Pentagon.
Shortly after Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology, OpenAI announced a Pentagon deal, agreeing, unlike Anthropic, to allow its AI for “any lawful purpose.” CEO Sam Altman said the Pentagon shared OpenAI’s principles of ensuring human oversight of weapon systems and opposing mass US surveillance.
The sources: The New York Times, Reuters
