Anthropic sues US government after unprecedented national security designation
AI giant Anthropic says that it has "no choice" but to sue the US government after being officially designated a supply chain risk to national security.
CEO Dario Amodei confirmed on Thursday that the Department of War - an alternate name given to the Department of Defense under the Trump administration - notified the company of its long-rumored decision on March 4 via letter.
READ MORE
The designation, typically reserved for foreign adversaries, marks the first time a US company has been classified this way, and effectively bars Anthropic from securing military contracts.
Amodei believes the decision is not "legally sound," and said "we see no choice but to challenge it in court."
The relationship breakdown stems from Anthropic's refusal to let the government strip its safety guardrails, a move that would have allowed its AI to be used for fully autonomous weapons and domestic mass surveillance.
A day after Anthropic stated publicly that it would not allow its tech to be used in this way, President Trump used his own social media platform to brand it "A RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY," which made a "DISASTROUS MISTAKE" in trying to "strong-arm" the government into obeying its terms of service.
Trump accused Anthropic of ignoring the US Constitution and trying to take control of military operations from military commanders, before ordering all federal departments to stop using its products.
Amodei said in his latest missive: "we are very proud of the work we have done together with the Department," and in the previous days have had "productive conversations" about the ways in which it could work with the government while adhering to its two non-negotiables.
"As we stated last Friday, we do not believe, and have never believed, that it is the role of Anthropic or any private company to be involved in operational decision-making – that is the role of the military," he said.
"Our only concerns have been our exceptions on fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance, which relate to high-level usage areas, and not operational decision-making."
Amodei also apologized for the tone of an internal memo sent to Anthropic employees, which was leaked on March 4, shortly after Trump's social media tirade.
"Anthropic did not leak this post nor direct anyone else to do so – it is not in our interest to escalate this situation," he said.
"It was a difficult day for the company, and I apologize for the tone of the post. It does not reflect my careful or considered views. It was also written six days ago, and is an out-of-date assessment of the current situation."
The leaked memo followed the announcement of OpenAI striking a deal with the Department of War to use its AI tech for military applications.
In a statement outlining its perspective on the deal, OpenAI claimed its agreement "has more guardrails than any previous agreement for AI deployments, including Anthropic's," with explicit red lines against autonomous weapons, high-stakes automated decisions, mass domestic surveillance, and use by intelligence agencies like the NSA.
As The Register previously reported, in the same statement, originally published on February 28 and updated on March 2, OpenAI said it disagreed with the government's decision to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk.
"A good future is going to require real and deep collaboration between the government and the AI labs," it said. "As part of our deal here, we asked that the same terms be made available to all AI labs, and specifically that the government would try to resolve things with Anthropic; the current state is a very bad way to kick off this next phase of collaboration between the government and AI labs."
On why it succeeded where Anthropic apparently did not, OpenAI pointed to enforceability: cloud-only deployment, a functioning safety stack, and cleared personnel kept in the loop. "We don't know why Anthropic could not reach this deal, and we hope that they and more labs will consider it."
"Based on what we know, we believe our contract provides better guarantees and more responsible safeguards than earlier agreements, including Anthropic's original contract."
The Department of War did not respond to a request for comment. ®
