Anthropic said in its lawsuit that the designation is illegal and violates its free speech and due process rights.
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Anthropic has filed a lawsuit to block the Pentagon’s inclusion on a U.S. national security blacklist, intensifying a high-stakes battle with President Donald Trump’s administration over limits on the use of the Artificial Intelligence Institute and its technology.
Anthropic said in Monday’s lawsuit that the designation is illegal and violates free speech and due process rights. The filing in federal court in California asked a judge to revoke the designation and prevent federal agencies from enforcing it.
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“These actions are unprecedented and illegal. The Constitution does not allow the government to use vast powers to punish companies for protected speech,” Antropik said.
The Pentagon on Thursday imposed a formal supply chain risk designation on Anthropic, restricting the use of technology that Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources, was being used in military operations in Iran.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth designated the company Anthropic after it refused to remove guardrails against the use of AI for autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance. The two countries have been in deep debate over these restrictions for several months.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth said they planned for a six-month phase-out.
The company is also seeking to rescind President Trump’s order directing federal employees to stop using its AI chatbot, Claude.
The legal challenge intensifies an unusual public debate over how AI can be used for war and mass surveillance. The controversy also involves Anthropic’s technology industry rivals, particularly OpenAI, which signed its own contract to work with the Department of Defense hours after the government punished Anthropic for its position.
Anthropic filed two separate lawsuits Monday in federal court in California and the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., each challenging various aspects of the government’s actions against the company.
Antropic officials said the lawsuit does not prevent them from resuming negotiations and reaching a settlement with the U.S. government. The company says it does not want to fight with the U.S. government. The Pentagon said it does not comment on litigation. Last week, Pentagon officials said the two countries were no longer in active talks.
Threats to business
The designation poses a major threat to Anthropic’s business with the government, and the outcome could affect how other AI companies negotiate limits on military use of their technology, but CEO Dario Amodei clarified Thursday that the designation is “narrow scoped” and the company could still use its tools for projects unrelated to the Department of Defense.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth’s Feb. 27 actions came shortly after Mr. Amodei met with Mr. Hegseth in hopes of reaching an agreement after months of discussions with Anthropic over whether the company’s policies could constrain military action.
Anthropic said it seeks to restrict its technology from being used for two high-level applications: mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons. Mr. Hegseth and other officials publicly insisted that the company must accept “all lawful” uses of Claude and threatened to punish Anthropic if it did not comply.
Designating the company as a supply chain risk would cut off Anthropic’s defense efforts, a power designed to prevent foreign adversaries from harming national security systems. This is the first known use of this designation by the federal government for a U.S. company.
The Pentagon said U.S. law, not private companies, determines how to protect the country, insisted it would have complete flexibility in using AI for “all lawful uses,” and argued that Anthropic’s restrictions could put American lives at risk.
Anthropic said that even the best AI models are not reliable enough to be fully autonomous weapons and are dangerous to use for that purpose.
After Hegseth’s announcement, Anthropic said in a statement that the designation is legally unsound and sets a dangerous precedent for companies negotiating with the government. The company said it would not waver on “threat or punishment.”
Amodei also apologized last week for an internal memo published Wednesday by tech news site The Information. In a memo released on February 27, Amodei said one reason Pentagon officials don’t like the company is that “we don’t admire Mr. Trump like a dictator.”
While countering the Pentagon’s actions, Anthropic has sought to convince companies and other government agencies that the Trump administration’s penalties are narrow penalties that only affect military contractors who use Claude on Pentagon work.
For Anthropic, a privately held company, making this distinction is very important. That’s because most of the $14 billion in revenue expected this year will come from businesses and government agencies that use Claude for computer coding and other tasks. More than 500 customers pay Anthropic at least $1 million a year for Claude, according to a recent investment announcement that valued the company at $380 billion.
