Hundreds of tech workers have signed an open letter calling on the Department of Defense to rescind the designation of humans as a “supply chain risk.” The letter also asks Congress to intervene and “consider whether the exercise of these special powers against U.S. technology companies is appropriate.”
The letter includes signatories from major technology and venture capital firms, including OpenAI, Slack, IBM, Cursor, and Salesforce Ventures. This follows a dispute between the Department of Defense and Anthropic last week after the AI Institute refused to give the military unrestricted access to its AI systems.
Anthropic’s two red lines in negotiations with the Pentagon were that it did not want its technology to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or to power autonomous weapons that could determine targets and fire decisions without human intervention. The Department of Defense said it has no plans to do these things, but believes they should not be restricted by vendor regulations.
President Donald Trump on Friday directed federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology after a six-month transition period after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei did not give in to Hegseth’s threats. Hegseth said he intends to carry out his threat and designate Anthropic as a supply chain risk. This designation is typically reserved for foreign adversaries, barring them from partnering with government agencies or companies that do business with the Department of Defense.
“Effective immediately, any contractor, supplier, or partner doing business with the U.S. military may not engage in any commercial activity with Anthropic,” Hegseth wrote in a post Friday.
But posting on X doesn’t automatically make Anthropic a supply chain risk. The government will be required to complete a risk assessment and notify Congress before military partners sever ties with Anthropic or its products. Anthropic said in a blog post that the destination is “legally unsound” and that it “will challenge the supply chain risk designation in court.”
Many in the industry view the administration’s treatment of Anthropic as harsh and clear retaliation.
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“If the parties cannot agree on terms, the normal course of action is to part ways and work with a competitor,” the open letter said. “This situation sets a dangerous precedent. Punishing U.S. companies that refuse to accept contract changes sends a clear message to all U.S. technology companies: Accept whatever terms the government demands or face retaliation.”
Beyond concerns about the government’s harsh treatment of Anthropic, many in the industry remain concerned about government overreach and the potential for AI to be used for illicit purposes.
OpenAI researcher Boaz Barak wrote in a social media post on Monday that preventing governments from using AI to carry out mass surveillance is also his “personal red line” and that “it should belong to all of us.”
Shortly after President Trump publicly attacked Anthropic, OpenAI announced it had reached a unique agreement to deploy its models into the Pentagon’s classified environments. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said last week that the company has the same red lines as Anthropic.
“If anything good can come out of last week’s events, it will be if we in the AI industry begin to treat the problem of governments using AI for abuse and surveillance of their own citizens as a catastrophic risk in itself,” Barak wrote. “We’ve had successful assessments, mitigations, and processes for risks like biological weapons and cybersecurity. Let’s use the same process here.”
