Anthropic, Defense Department face off in DC court over blacklisting

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., will hear arguments Tuesday. Antropik’s case It’s the latest confrontation in a months-long conflict between the Pentagon and one of the country’s leading artificial intelligence companies over its blacklisting by the Department of Defense.

Accordingly, the U.S. Department of Justice and Anthropic, on behalf of the Department of Defense, will each have 15 minutes to present their case to a three-judge panel. one order earlier this month. Judge Karen Henderson, Judge Gregory Katsas and Judge Neomi Rao will then take the matter and submit written opinions.

Hearings will begin at 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

Anthropic sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Department of Defense in March after the agency declared its AI initiative a supply chain risk, which it alleged threatened U.S. national security. That label has historically been reserved for foreign adversaries and required defense contractors to certify that they would not use Anthropic’s Claude models in their work with the military.

The appointment comes after months of tense negotiations between Anthropic and the Ministry of Defense failed. The Department of Defense wanted Anthropic to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to its models for all lawful purposes, while seeking assurances that Anthropic’s technology would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.

The two parties were unable to reach an agreement, and Hegseth blacklisted Anthropic and criticized the company on social media. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the company had no choice but to challenge the supply chain risk definition in court.

The Department of Defense has continued to use Anthropic’s models to support its military operations against Iran, and President Donald Trump told CNBC last month that a deal between the Department of Defense and the startup was “possible.”

The appeals court denied Anthropic’s request to temporarily block the appointment in April; This means the practice will remain in effect as long as the case continues. But judges agreed to fast-track the case because Anthropic was “likely to suffer irreparable harm” during the trial. one order.

Inside short Ahead of Tuesday’s hearings, the government argued that Anthropic could “hardcode limitations” into its model, presenting an “untenable national security risk.” According to the summary, Hegseth determined that Anthropic “undermined the important trust needed to sustain the relationship;” especially since Anthropic was able to “manipulate its model to apply its own moral and political judgments regarding the military’s appropriate use of technology.”

anthropic, separate summaryIt said the idea that it could codify limits in future models was not supported and did not provide a “basis” for identifying supply chain risk. The company also argues that Hegseth and the Department of Defense violated the Constitution and existing procedures.

“The court should find the appointment unlawful,” Anthropic’s lawyers wrote.

In addition to its lawsuit in Washington, D.C., Anthropic filed a separate but related lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco. The DoD relied on two different designations to justify its supply chain risk action; This means they have to be sued in two separate courts.

Anthropic was granted a preliminary injunction in the San Francisco case, allowing government agencies other than the Department of Defense to use Anthropic’s models while the case is pending.

“Nothing in the applicable law supports the Orwellian notion that an American company could be branded a potential enemy and saboteur of the United States for expressing disagreement with the government,” the judge wrote.

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