Anthropic sues Defense Department over supply chain risk designation

Anthropic has made good on its promise to challenge the Department of Defense in court after the agency labeled it a supply chain risk late last week.

The Claude-maker filed a complaint against the Department on Monday. The complaint comes after a weeks-long conflict between Anthropic and the DOD over whether the military should have unrestricted access to Anthropic’s AI systems. Anthropic had two firm red lines: it didn’t want its technology to be used for mass surveillance of Americans and didn’t believe it was ready to power fully autonomous weapons with no humans making targeting and firing decisions.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued that the Pentagon should have access to AI systems for “any lawful purpose.” A supply chain risk label is usually reserved for foreign adversaries, and requires any company or agency that does work with the Pentagon to certify that it doesn’t use Anthropic’s models. 

Anthropic called the DOD’s actions “unprecedented and unlawful” in a complaint filed in San Francisco federal court. “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech.”

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.