Anthropic to take Trump's Pentagon to court over AI dispute
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Dario Amodei at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 20. Photo: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Anthropic vowed to challenge the Pentagon in court over its blacklisting of the company for refusing to lift all safeguards on the military's use of its model, Claude — adding it's "deeply saddened" by the escalating dispute.
Why it matters: The frontier AI company is doing what few other companies have done since Trump's second term began — directly and publicly challenging the administration.
- President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened earlier Friday to cut off Anthropic from a plethora of customers through a "supply chain risk" designation — treatment that historically has been reserved for foreign adversaries.
What they're saying: "No amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons," Anthropic said in a statement Friday night, underscoring its key objection's to the Pentagon's demands.
- "We will challenge any supply chain risk designation in court."
Zoom in: Anthropic cited statute 10 USC 3252, which states a a supply chain risk designation can only extend as it pertains to contracts with the Pentagon. In other words, Anthropic argues that it can't be extended to military contractors that use Claude to serve other customers.
- The company claims individual customers or companies with commercial contracts with Anthropic are "completely unaffected."
Per the statement:
- "If you are an individual customer or hold a commercial contract with Anthropic, your access to Claude—through our API, claude.ai, or any of our products—is completely unaffected.
- If you are a Department of War contractor, this designation—if formally adopted—would only affect your use of Claude on Department of War contract work. Your use for any other purpose is unaffected."
Context: Defense officials want to use AI models for "all lawful purposes" in classified and not have to adhere to company's ideas of what is safe and isn't, particularly in matters of national security.
What's next: Anthropic said it's still committed to ensuring a smooth transition off the Pentagon's operations. Trump gave six months to replace Claude.
- The Pentagon has separately accepted Anthropic rival OpenAI's safety measures and limitations, a source familiar told Axios, though no contract has been signed.
- The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
