Anthropic CEO vows to challenge supply chain risk designation in court

Antropik CEO Dario Amodei approved He said the U.S. government designated his company a supply chain risk on Thursday and said he had “no choice” but to challenge the designation in court.

The startup has been at loggerheads with the Department of Defense over how its artificial intelligence models, known as Claude, could be used, and was rumored to have been blacklisted from government contracts via social media posts late last week.

Anthropic wanted assurances that its technology would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance, but the Department of Defense required that Anthropic give the agency unrestricted access to Claude for all lawful purposes.

“Like us stated last FridayAmodei does not and has never believed that there is a role for Anthropic or any private company to participate in operational decision-making; this is the role of the military,” Amodei wrote. “Our only concern has been our exceptions for fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance, which relate to high-level use areas, not operational decision-making.”

Anthropic is the only American company publicly named as a supply chain risk, and the designation will require defense suppliers and contractors to certify that they do not use the company’s models in their work with the Pentagon. This label is generally reserved for organizations operating under foreign competitors, such as Chinese technology company Huawei.

It remains unclear whether defense contractors will be able to use Anthropic’s technology for projects other than their work with the military. In his post, Amodei said that this designation “does not (and cannot) limit Claude’s use or business dealings with Anthropic unless they are unrelated to his War Department contracts.”

MicrosoftThe company, which announced plans to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic in November, said in a statement that its lawyers “reviewed the specification” and determined that Anthropic products could be made available to customers outside the Department of Defense.

Antropik signed 200 million dollars It signed a contract with the Department of Defense in July, becoming the first AI lab to integrate its models into mission workflows in covert networks. But as negotiations between the two sides stalled, rivals OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI also decided to use their models in secret capacities.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced his company’s settlement with the Department of Defense just hours after Anthropic was blacklisted on Friday. he said a post on x He said the agency demonstrated “a deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome.”

Anthropic’s relationship with the Trump administration has become increasingly tense in recent months, and Amodei apologized for a critical internal memo leaked to the press on Wednesday.

Amodei reportedly told employees that management didn’t like Anthropic because it didn’t donate or offer “dictator-style praise” to Trump. Information.

He said the memo was written on Friday after a “difficult day for the company” and did not reflect his “careful or considered views”. Amodei added that this was an “outdated assessment of the current situation.”

“Anthropic did not leak this post or direct anyone else to do so; it is not in our interest to escalate this situation,” Amodei wrote.

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